The Slytherin Dursley
by MrsRegulusBlack123
Summary: Nobody would ever have expected a Dursley to go to Hogwarts, yet there she was. Diving head-first into a world she had been taught to fear wasn't easy, but Daisy would make the most of it. Set during the Chamber of Secrets.
1. Daisy Dursley

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Harry Potter belongs to the wonderful J. K. Rowling.**

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Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four Privet Drive, had always been proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.

There was no real reason for anybody to believe otherwise either. The Dursleys lived in a moderately-sized house in Surrey, England, it was well-kept and looked exactly identical to all the houses to the right and left of it. In terms of comfort and socioeconomic status, they had anything a family of four could have wanted to have. Quite obviously, life hadn't been unkind to them.

Number 4 Privet Drive wasn't the sort of house one would expect to find anything out of the ordinary going on.

Daisy Dursley had grown up believing exactly that.

That is, at least, until last year. Last year had been... well, it had been quite a bit different from the ones preceding it. She'd go as far as to say that it had been Different with a capital D.

Before last year, her life had pretty much been a huge routine which was repeated over and over again. Nothing new or unpredictable ever really happened. She went to school, brought satisfactory grades back home, got coddled by her mum and dad, avoided her brother and his friends, and was more or less indifferent towards her cousin.

She enjoyed watching the occasional TV show or movie when her parents weren't around, but sadly, those days were few and far in between.

Prior to last year, Daisy also couldn't remember a day in her life during which Harry Potter hadn't been there. Harry was her mum's sister's child, and having been left on their doorstep when Daisy had only been a few weeks old, none of the kids remembered life without him. Harry was a skinny, short kind of boy with dark hair and round glasses. His glasses had been broken and taped back together a couple of times, mostly courtesy of Daisy's older brother, Dudley, and his mates. Harry also had a lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead- it didn't look like any other scar Daisy had ever seen though, he'd had it forever and it never even faded a little bit.

Ever since she could remember, Harry had always been the scapegoat, the outsider. Before last year, she never even knew why her parents seemed to hate him so much when they treated Dudley and her like they were the best thing to grace the Earth.

After what had been almost an entire month of letters mysteriously finding their way into their house last year though, answers had come. And boy had they been unexpected.

Daisy's dad had taken them all away to a rickety shack on a rock in the middle of the sea to escape the constant downpour of letters. All of them were the same, addressed to one "Mr. H. Potter", much to her parents' distress, the location changed each time they moved someplace else. Nobody told the kids what was going on, and those few days had honestly been some of the worst she had experienced. Dudley would probably agree with her on that, and there weren't many things the two of them agreed on.

Away from the comfort of their home, the cabin in the sea had been cold and damp and altogether a terrible place to be. She had been left to share a sofa with Dudley, which other than extremely uncomfortable, had ultimately lead to a fight of shoving and pushing their feet in eachother's faces until their dad had put an end to it.

They had eventually somehow managed to fall asleep, Harry laying beside them on the ground.

And that night was when it all changed.

Daisy still clearly remembered being roughly awoken by a heavy _thud_ on the door. She also remembered Dudley shooting up in shock and sending her toppling off the sofa where she fell face-first onto the wooden planks.

A giant had visited them that night, at least Daisy figured that was what he was, because he had indeed been huge.

Just in a few minutes time, that man (Haggard? Hergid?) changed everything Daisy had known to be true.

Apparently, Harry- her cousin- was a _wizard_. Apparently, his parents had been a witch and wizard as well. Apparently, Harry was supposed to go to this school for _wizards,_ to learn how to use _magic_. Apparently, Daisy's parents had known all about that. It had all sounded so absurd, that Daisy had been sure she was in a dream.

Things went back to normal when Harry left to go to his magic school on the first day of September later that same year.

Dudley had his pigtail (a little memento from the giant that had visited them at the cabin) surgically removed and nobody talked of the incident again. He started going to Smeltings, Daisy went back to school normally. Dudley was still a bully (though in mum's eyes he would always be her little angel), and Daisy still made sure to stay out of his way.

Still, Daisy couldn't deny she thought about Harry from time to time. Well, not Harry specifically, but his magic school. For the first time in her life, she was jealous of him- the scrawny kid that had spent roughly 10 years of his life sleeping in the cupboard under the stairs. She knew better than to voice her opinions to her family though- she doubted they would have taken it well.

And then summer came, and with it, twenty-seven presents for her good performance at school. Daisy was pretty sure she'd have gotten them even if she had failed the year. Her parents loved giving Dudley and her presents- and in particular, they loved giving them overpriced presents. Not that Daisy complained, she was rather fond of her new books, and who was she to complain about getting a new TV to replace the one Dudley had broken with his slingshot last month (she'd gotten him back by unleashing a number of spiders in his bed, not that anyone ever suspected her of anything), and well... Leroy, he was cute.

Leroy was a tiny grey Persian cat- her mum had been against getting a pet, hating the idea of something running around and leaving hair behind or making messes, but around this house, Daisy had long ago learnt that putting on a sweet smile and her cutest puppy dog eyes as well as choosing the appropriate words, got her whatever she wanted.

Dudley usually went with throwing temper tantrums... it wasn't like he'd be able to get away with that his whole life though, so she found her own tactics much more fulfilling.

Anyway, that summer Harry also came back from his school. She managed to get a quick look at his trunk and what looked like a broom before they were all locked inside the cupboard under the stairs.

Her parents and brother acted more on edge than ever before- personally, Daisy thought that was kind of stupid- Harry just seemed to try to stay out of their way as much as possible. She didn't know why she didn't share the same fear towards Harry and his magic as the rest of her family did, and it made her feel kind of guilty at times that she didn't- wasn't that the way she was supposed to feel? Instead though, the idea of magic just made her feel a bit giddy on the inside.

One could say her longing had grown into a small obsession. She went as far as to steal the padlock key from her parents' room one night, just so she could take a look at Harry's stuff. She ended up taking a book back to her room with her (it wasn't like anyone would check), and over the following month she developed a habit of sneaking books in and out of the cupboard just to leaf through them.

It was a relatively quiet summer, if not a bit tense because of the whole situation with Harry. Then of course, everything went south. To make a long story short, Harry had ruined his uncle's chances at promotion and after what had been a few weeks of confinement for him, a _flying car_ had dropped by in the middle of the night to pick him up.

Needless to say, nobody had gotten much sleep that night. Breakfast had been awkward, if not somewhat forced. Her parents pretended that none of last night had happened, they instead went on with their morning as usual. It was as if Harry had never been there.

"What are we having for lunch, mum?" Dudley demanded, even as he was still wolfing down his breakfast. Daisy thought it was absurd to ask that when they hadn't even finished breakfast yet, but her father laughed out loud and said something about how Dudley was turning out to be a "fine lad, much better than one of those sissies".

"I don't know yet. What would you like, pumpkin?"

"Uhh..." Daisy couldn't help but wonder if that was too much for his brain to process, what with him eating and having to think at the same time.

"What about chicken? With, I don't know, mashed potatoes?" Mum called it a lovely idea, Dudley protested. He calmed down at the promise of extra dessert though... not that he needed it. At all.

Daisy was in the middle of watching a morning rerun of a show about a man (possibly a doctor? Maybe? That's what everybody referred to him as anyway) who traveled through time and space in a blue police box, when the bell suddenly rang. She would've gone on watching him try to negotiate with aliens, only that a shrill scream distracted her.

Daisy got up and quickly made her way down the stairs, only to stop halfway when she saw her parents standing in front of the door, talking to an unknown man... Dudley seemed to be listening as well, albeit from a distance.

"- my wife! I will not have your kind in my house!"

The man, he was pale and dressed in black, looked at Daisy's dad over his large, hooked nose and did not look amused. Daisy personally thought he looked a bit eerie, and she sure wouldn't have liked to stand where her dad stood right now.

"The boy isn't here! You can leave!" Petunia Dursley sternly said, even though it was clear by the way she clutched her husband's arm, that she was scared. Daisy didn't blame her- the man didn't look like the most welcoming kind.

"I am not here for Potter, Petunia. And believe me, if I'd had a say in this, I wouldn't be standing here either." He reached to the inside of his coat (it was summer, why was he wearing that?), and pulled something out. "I'm here to deliver a letter."

Both of her parents just looked dumbstruck, but Daisy felt her heart rate pick up. They had mentioned Harry! And when her dad referred to "their kind", it usually meant Harry's people, wizards! But the man seemed to know her mum... how was that even possible? She glanced at her mother, and then the man. She wondered, could it possibly be...?

"If you would be as kind as to point to towards a Miss. Daisy Dursley, that would make my business here much easier."

All eyes were suddenly on her, and Daisy thought that this must be what it felt like to be a deer caught in the headlights. Within the next few seconds, several things happened all at once.

Her dad tried to slam the door shut, and her mum screamed bloody murder, running over to Daisy and hugging her, almost as if she were shielding her with her body. She cried over and over again mantras of, "no, not my baby" and "my sweet little girl" as well as "this can't be". Meanwhile Dudley looked too shocked to speak, his mouth hanging open as he looked at his little sister with eyes the size of saucer pans.

Dad's efforts to keep the man outside were useless, for five minutes later he was standing inside their hallway anyway. Daisy had been pushed against the wall by her mother, and now she was sure that she was using her body as a shield. It made her feel kind of scared... maybe this wasn't what she had thought it had been after all.

But... that envelope in his hand, she had seen ones like those a million times before, all of them last summer, when Harry had been told he was a wizard and was to study at a school of magic. And it was that small hope- the one that made her feel like she betrayed her family- that gave her the courage to gently push her mum out of the way and take a few steps forward despite her mum's attempts to keep her from doing so.

The man was looking at her coolly, but expectantly, so she spoke up.

"That's... that's me. I'm Daisy Dursley."

He nodded and held out the envelope for her to take. She raised a shaky arm, slowly moving it towards the letter, but it was snatched away from her before she could touch it.

"No! This is absolute nonsense! My daughter is normal! Normal, I tell you! She's a Dursley and Dursleys are not... some pansies waving around magic twigs! Get out of my house at once!"

"We will call the police!" Petunia added, for good measure.

Once again, the man did not look amused.

"Like the muggle police would be able to do anything." He then turned to Daisy's mother, "you know just as well as I know, Petunia, that the only one that can make the decision about whether or not she's going to come, is Miss Dursley herself."

"Well, she's obviously going to refuse!" As her father's eyes fell on her, Daisy couldn't help but feel like she should avert her eyes. "Right, Daisy?"

"I..." She swallowed, it seemed like a much harder task than usual. "I would like to see that letter, dad."

Petunia gasped, an overdramatic cry that sounded like one of despair and horror escaping her lips. She hugged Daisy, desperate to make her stay.

Vernon Dursley didn't move.

"Dad-"

"Go to your room, Daisy."

"But dad, I just want to-"

"Now!"

She took a step back, not used to being the one shouted at.

"She will not be going. And that's final! You may have taken the boy last year- well, good riddance if you ask me- but my daughter is staying right here! She will go to a local school, study, get married and have no part in any of your... abnormality."

"Our abnormality, Dursley, as you have so eloquently put it, runs through your daughter's veins. And if she wants to go to Hogwarts, the school will do anything to help her there."

"Well I'm sure she-"

"Dad...?" With all eyes on her, Daisy took a deep breath. "I think I would like to go to that... to Harry's school."

Her parents looked at her as if she had just told them living beings didn't need oxygen to breathe, but she stood her ground. She wasn't one to talk back but... well, this seemed like an opportunity she'd never get again.

"Well, I believe the decision has been made, then." The man with the hooked nose finally spoke up. He took a second envelope out of his coat and handed it to her. "As a professor, I am obligated to offer to help you get your school supplies as you are a muggleborn first-year..."

He looked like he was hoping she would turn down the offer, but she didn't think her parents would take her there anyway so...

"Yes. Yes, please. I would like that."

Her parents seemed too shell shocked at her decision to protest as she followed the stranger out of the house, quickly throwing back an apologetic glance before quickening her pace to catch up.

She suddenly realized that despite him apparently being a professor at Harry's school, she didn't really know much about this man.

"Umm, excuse me but... who are you, sir?"

"Severus Snape, I will be your potions professor at Hogwarts." She nodded, continuing their walk in relative silence. She tried to ask about how he knew her mum, but a stern glare quickly silenced her once more.

Finally, when they were at the end of the road with no one around, professor Snape stopped. He held out his arm and instructed her to grab it.

"I suggest you hold on tight, Dursley... this will feel somewhat uncomfortable." 'Uncomfortable' was the understatement of the century. The feeling that followed his words was painful- it was as if she was being compressed from all sides and pushed through a really small tube. It felt as if her lungs were going to burst, and for a moment she thought she was unable to breathe.

Then, just as quickly as it had started, it was over.

She stumbled away, leaning against the wall as she closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. God, she felt like she was going to be sick. She didn't throw up though, and for that she was grateful.

As she looked up, she realized that she was no longer standing in the same road as she had been before, but somewhere (if she had to guess) in downtown London. She blinked, mouth opening and closing a few times because... wow.

"Did we just... teleport?"

"It is called apparition. But I suppose that, yes, the closest thing to apparition there is in muggle terms, would be teleportation. Now pay attention, I'm only going to explain this once."

Daisy nodded, fully attentive.

"The place we are going to now, is called Diagon Alley. Here you will be able to find all of your school supplies, in the following years you will have to do so yourself." He paused to look at her and make sure she was still listening. "Am I correct in assuming that you will need help paying for your school supplies?"

"Um, yes- I mean, I think so. My dad-" He didn't seem to care so she just stopped talking. Instead, Daisy followed her future professor to a shabby looking bar called the leaky cauldron. Through there, they were able to access Diagon Alley.

Diagon Alley was indeed a place to behold. It was hustling and bustling with witches and wizards of all ages- it was particularly easy to tell because of their clothes... all of them were dressed in long robes and cloaks- some of them even wore top hats!

Daisy made sure to look around her and take in every small detail, the signs with the weird names, the things standing outside, bits of conversations here and there. It was all so new and... well, magical! She didn't even realize her mouth had been hanging open until it was pointed out to her and she closed it, looking away in embarrassment.

Their first stop was Gringott's, a bank which was exclusively for wizards apparently. She got some money in a little pouch which was supposed to last her seven years (she'd have to get some of the books and stuff second-hand) and soon they were off again.

Professor Snape wasn't a great fan of wasting time, and so they got through their tasks fairly quickly. Soon, Daisy was carrying a very heavy stack of books (most of which were by the same author, one Gilderoy Lockhart), a standard black robe fitted to be exactly her size, a cauldron, several potion ingredients and last but not least, a wand.

Mr. Ollivander had been a weird one, he had blabbered for some time- talking to professor Snape about his wand and reminiscing about when he'd bought it. This had somehow brought him upon the subject of a woman named Ellen (or something that sounded like it) Prince, but before he could go into any detail, Snape made sure to turn his attention to Daisy.

"Ah, of course," He had said with a smile, "and who would you be, young lady?"

She told him her name, and after some more questions, he dove into a monologue about her late aunt (whom she apparently took after, despite her having blonde hair and brown eyes, both of which were her mother's) as well as her cousin, who had stood in this very shop last year buying his own first wand. Holy, he had said. 11 inches long with a phoenix feather core.

Daisy wasn't exactly sure what all that meant, so she was just happy that her turn to find a wand had come.

They went through a couple of tries, making more of a mess than Daisy's mum would ever had been comfortable with or even tolerated, but in the end there was one which the old man deemed good... or rather, according to the man himself, it was the wand that had found her good because "The wand chooses the wizard, Miss Dursley- I told this exact same thing to your cousin last year. Do say hello to him from me.". It was 10 ½ inches long, made out of walnut and containing unicorn hair. It was, according to Ollivander, an excellent wand for spellcasting.

Upon returning home (Daisy had been more prepared for apparition this time around, but it didn't make the feeling any less pleasant), she had been sent to her room as professor Snape _exchanged a few words _with her parents. What exactly that was supposed to mean, Daisy wasn't sure.

The month that remained, was a pretty quiet one. Nobody mentioned the incident, but it didn't escape Daisy's notice that her parents seemed to be acting differently -colder- around her- it was as if they refused to acknowledge her unless she spoke directly to them. If it wasn't for the obvious shift in their behavior, she would've wondered if any of that had even happened at all.

It did not feel nice to be alienated in your own house.

The night before her departure, Daisy lay awake in her bed, rolling about and tossing the sheets off her body before wrapping herself back in them. It wasn't too hot to sleep, and the house was quiet... it wasn't even the dim streetlight that shone in through her window that kept her up this late. Her books and supplies all lay neatly in her trunk, she had spent hours nervously arranging them and nothing she owned had ever really looked so well taken care of. On top of it, Daisy could make out Leroy sleeping. He was curled up in a little ball, breathing rhythmically. It seemed as if she was the only one awake at three AM- she could certainly hear Dudley and her dad's snores, and her mum was bound to be asleep as well.

She wondered for a fleeting moment how her cousin was doing. Was he sleeping? He probably was. He was also probably with those redheads that had picked him up- she remembered seeing a pair of twins dragging his stuff up the stairs that night, even though she had no idea who they were.

She supposed she might see them again. She was apprehensive though... was she _really _a witch? She couldn't help but doubt that sometimes- other than erupt sparks, her wand had never really done much else... was that how it was supposed to be? Or was she maybe really normal like the rest of her family? The thought made her sad. Because, what if she was?

She had never even thought of the possibility that she might be a witch (though she might have secretly daydreamed about it once or twice), and she never really remembered getting in trouble for making weird things happen, like the case with Harry often was. She had never spoken to a snake, nor had she ever managed to levitate a cake.

What if it had all been one big mistake?

But then she thought back at the older days, times that she never really paid much attention to before. Like the time she had tripped and fell down the stairs- she clearly remembered hovering over the ground for just a few seconds, just long enough for her to brace herself and lessen the impact. No one had seen that one but herself. But there were other times, like when her mum had made broccoli for dinner and she had refused to eat it- Harry had already been eating his portion, seemingly enjoying it, when it had suddenly been changed to pizza, her favourite. Yet, nobody said anything to her- Harry was the one that spent a whole weekend in the cupboard. She could think of many occasions when the strange things happening around number 4 Privet Drive could not have been Harry's doing- and yet, nobody had ever suspected anyone but him.

It did seem logical, even if it did made her stomach twist with guilt. She tried not to think about it- but that stupid little cupboard kept flashing through her mind. She imagined actually sleeping in there, and thought of how lucky she had been.

It made her realize that if Harry had been called a Freak all his life for being a wizard, wouldn't that make her one as well? She was sure it did. She was also sure that was why her mum and dad no longer really talked to her... the only thing that had saved her from being treated like Harry, was that she was the Dursley's daughter and not their niece. She idly wondered if she would've gotten the same treatment had the tables been turned... would her aunt, Lily, have hated her like her mum hated Harry? She didn't really want to think about it...

And like that, Daisy drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

Morning came, and whatever professor Snape had told them last month, it had certainly worked, because right after breakfast (a silent and awkward affair, as it had been since she had come back from Diagon Alley), they told her to get her stuff. Dad would be driving her to King's Cross before work.

All of them got in the car, Dudley staying as far away from her as he could, so Daisy simply fiddled with the tip of her skirt as she was left to ponder over her own thoughts. There was no smalltalk, no indignant yelling at people driving too fast, no comments at people's clothes. There was nothing, and that made Daisy more uncomfortable than anything.

Her father gave her a pat on the back and her mother hugged her tight. She wasn't expecting any words to be spoken, but as she held her closely, Petunia Dursley whispered into her daughter's ear.

"_The barrier between platforms nine and ten." _What that was supposed to mean, Daisy wasn't sure. But the moment was over before she could ask, and her family was gone.


	2. The Sorting

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter**

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Daisy Dursley just stood there for a couple of moments, throwing awkward glances around herself as she let the fact that she was truly all on her own for the first time in her life sink in. It was a strange feeling- not necessarily a bad one, but it did cause a nervous kind of feeling to manifest inside her stomach. She was standing in King's Cross station, and none of the faces around her seemed even the slightest bit familiar.

So she asked herself a question: _What now?_

Frankly, she had no idea. Her mum had given her a hint though (as vague as it had been), and as it was the only thing she had to go by, she pushed her trolley towards where platforms nine and ten were situated.

There were people all around her, rushing past her to catch their trains or do their business, whatever it may be. She wondered if any of them had the same destination as herself, but she couldn't really tell. None of them were dressed in medieval clothes, or donned cone hats, like the wizards and witches in Diagon Alley had been.

The time was 10:45, so she was nicely on time- or she would be, if she only knew where the platform was...

_The barrier between platforms 9 and 10, _her mother had said.

_The barrier between platforms 9 and 10._

What had she meant by that?

_The barrier between platforms 9 and 10._

Unsurprisingly, repeating the words in her mind didn't do much... but there had to be a reason for her mother to mention this place, right?

Seriously. If she knew something, why couldn't she just have come out and said it instead of acting all mysteriously before walking off? Daisy sighed in frustration.

Well, this was getting her nowhere.

Leroy meowed and Daisy turned her gaze towards her cat, sighing as she watched the cat swing its claws at a fly. It flew off, buzzed annoyingly around Daisy's own head for a few moments, before taking off again. She was only absently watching it, trying to think of a solution to her predicament, but the thoughts were abruptly expelled as it was suddenly just _gone_! She blinked, looking back down at Leroy, but he didn't seem to have taken much notice. He was too busy licking his paw.

_The barrier between platforms 9 and 10!_

"Alright," She breathed, "That's just crazy..." Flies didn't just disappear or turn to thin air, that was just physically impossible, and her other theory seemed even more unlikely.

Then again, she was going to go to a _magic school._ Like... like Mildred Hubble, in that book she had read that one time, about a witch going to a magic school (she idly wondered if Hogwarts would be anything like that). She supposed she could give this idea of hers the benefit of the doubt.

Taking a tentative look around her, Daisy moved a few steps forward, awkwardly going to stand by the wall.

To her surprise, as she hesitantly held out her arm, palm ready to come in contact with a solid and rough surface, it just _passed right through_! Daisy pulled her arm back, eyes wide as she looked both ways to make sure nobody had seen that.

She quickly tried it again, and the result remained the same. It sent a new wave of excitement surging through her, and Daisy pulled back again, more confident now that she knew this was most likely where she needed to be. Pulling her trolley back, she put a bit of a distance between herself and the barrier, before walking towards it again. She still half-expected to crash into the thing, but despite her worries, no such thing happened.

By the time she reopened her eyes, Daisy Dursley was no longer standing in King's Cross station.

A sign to her left told her that she was on _Platform 9 and ¾._

She grinned a bit, letting her eyes take in the sight before her. The red train labeled as the "Hogwarts Express" was the first thing she took notice of, and then all the students and family members standing by and exchanging goodbyes... she could make out some people already sitting on the train as well.

"Look at that, Leroy. We made it."

Nobody had told her that dawdling in front of the passage leading to and from King's Cross station might not be the best of ideas though (even though she probably should've guessed that by herself), and before she could say anything else, a trolley crashed into her side painfully- along with its owner.

"Whoa! Watch out there!"

"Oh... uh, I'm sorry." She stupidly muttered as some boy grinned at her and picked up the box that had toppled off his school trunk and landed at her feet. She didn't know what was in it, but the hairy leg that had poked out as he reached for it, was suspicious enough, and Daisy decided then and there that she did not_ want _to know. The boy was dark-skinned and had dreadlocks, she didn't know his name, but Daisy thought he looked like a person that didn't mind getting into trouble all that much.

"Firstie?" He questioned as he stored away the mysterious box, and Daisy felt like she probably could and should have given a more sophisticated response than the bewildered _"huh?" _she managed to choke out. "Are. You. A. First. Year?" He questioned, slower this time, making sure to articulate- Daisy frowned, but simply nodded in reply to his answer.

"Yes."

"Nice! See you around then." He started pushing his trolley away from her but stopped and looked back to say something else, like an afterthought. "Unless you turn out to be a Slytherin." She wasn't sure what the joke was, but he seemed to find it funny enough for the both of them as he waved at her one last time and turned around to walk off. She just stared after him.

Well... whatever.

Reminding herself that she had better move out of the way before anybody else crashed into her, Daisy pushed her trolley forward. Her trunk was quite heavy, but she somehow managed to drag it up into the train. Five minutes later, she had found a compartment with a couple of first-year students, and was pretty much settled in.

They introduced themselves as Luna Lovegood and Colin Creevey.

Luna Lovegood was a girl with light blonde hair and a dreamy, dopey sort of smile. She spoke of the weirdest things, and most of the time Daisy had trouble keeping up with her. She wondered if a 'Wizard speak to normal English' sort of dictionary existed, but Colin Creevey often seemed even more confused than her sometimes, so she took that to be a good sign. She concluded that Luna was probably just... a bit stranger than most.

And then there was Colin Creevey, who was the most hyperactive person Daisy had ever met and talked to, as well as the youngest out of the three of them- as he had mentioned multiple times, he had turned 11 just some days ago. He wasn't necessarily bad company... Colin just... well... he talked. A lot.

"- and so after that, I thought buying a book _might _be a good idea, you know. Since I practically knew nothing about wizards and witches! So the shopkeeper gave me this book and you might not believe it, but Gilderoy Lockhart was at the bookshop! So of course I though, I should get my books signed- I'm happy I did now, because he sounds like such a cool person. And, oh! Oh! _Harry Potter _was there too! They took a picture together and everything! Of course, I hadn't known who he was back then, so I didn't recognize him, but-" Colin rambled on, like he had been doing for the past 30 minutes or so. Daisy would not go as far as to say that she had really been paying full attention to what the blonde boy had been going on about (neither had Luna, apparently, as she hadn't even stopped staring out the window dreamily ever since she introduced herself), but her cousin's name did spark her interest.

Now call her conceited, but Daisy Dursley didn't like to think she was stupid... and she certainly didn't like to be perceived as such by others, so of course she had taken her time to research the so-called magical community. Just the basics, so she wouldn't be thrown into this whole thing completely unprepared.

Between books, and a couple of issues of the 'Daily Prophet' and 'Witch weekly', it would've been impossible not to stumble upon the subject of Harry Potter sooner or later. For Daisy, it came rather sooner than later, in a form of a newsletter to the daily prophet from a fan...

The man, somebody Daisy was fairly certain Harry hadn't even met before, had wished him a happy birthday.

It had puzzled her of course, _she _barely knew when his birthday was (she doubted if Dudley did), so why did a stranger? In Witch Weekly, she had discovered a small article of the same nature.

To say she had been surprised to find out that Harry -_her Harry, _the one that had grown up being her brother's punching bag- was somewhat of a celebrity in the magical world, wouldn't have been an exaggeration. The books she checked spoke of him as a hero. Like the giant had told Harry last year, the books spoke of an evil wizard whose name was not to be spoken, and a baby that defeated him after his parents and many many other wizards had failed. She wasn't sure she understood how that was even possible, she didn't think anyone knew, but she got the basic gist of things.

It was a great shift from the quiet, bullied boy nobody seemed to like back at home.

Still, she at least knew not to make a fool of herself by asking something stupid like, "you know him?", or bluntly stating that, "oh yeah, my brother's friend once tried to push his face into a toilet. Small world, huh?"

That would've been... unfortunate.

Now that the subject had been brought up though, Daisy thought it might be a good opportunity to test the waters.

"Harry Potter?" She interjected, tilting her head a bit to show she was paying attention. Colin seemed surprised at being interrupted for the entirety of a second before eagerly nodding.

"Yes! You do know who that is right?"

"Of course." She rolled her eyes as if his question had been stupid, "who _doesn't _know Harry Potter?"

"Well, I didn't. My parents are both non-magic, see, so I only found out about being a wizard some days ago! It was so exciting! I can't wait to get to Hogwarts and learn how to use my wand!"

Daisy agreed.

"Transfiguration sounds very interesting, it doesn't really seem like an easy subject though." She hoped she'd do well, but... she supposed there were always the easier subjects to fall back on- history of magic didn't seem like it'd be such a drag. Potions sounded rather a lot like cooking, suffice to say, Daisy had never cooked a thing in her life- or even prepared a sandwich, her mum had never let her. "So what do you think of him then, Harry Potter?"

"Oh! He sounds really wicked! He defeated You-Know-Who when he was only a baby, I bet he's super strong! Do you think he'll let me have a picture? Or at least an autograph? I can't wait to meet him! I hope he'll let me touch his scar!"

It was weird to hear someone speak this highly of Harry, mainly because Daisy had never witnessed anyone else do so. He certainly hadn't been well-liked by his peers during elementary school, and she hadn't even really thought of the possibility of that being any different at this magic school of his. It was, admittedly, kind of stupid of her to assume.

What could she do though? Never had she known Harry to have friends, much less admirers. Instead, everyone made sure to stay away from him in fear of Dudley's fists and friends.

Colin Creevey didn't just look up to Harry though, she realized, he _idolized _him. Did many other children (maybe even adults?) think like that? Were they all so eager to meet him? The author of the book she had read sure seemed to hold him in a high regard... but if that was true then... well, surely it wouldn't be good for her past with him to get out there, would it? While she had never personally hurt him, not like Dudley and his gang had, she had never really gone out of her way to put a stop to it either.

Suddenly, she wasn't all that eager to get to Hogwarts. Not because she regretted her decision to come here, but because it would mean getting out of this compartment... and outside this compartment, well... Harry was bound to be somewhere there.

She wasn't so keen on meeting him again. At all.

It was in that moment that Daisy decided to do whatever she could to keep a low profile... as well as avoid Harry to the best of her capabilities.

"-y! Daisy!"

"Huh?" Colin Creevey was invading her personal space, looking a bit concerned as he wove a hand in front of her eyes. Blinking, Daisy moved back, and acknowledging she was with them again, Colin did the same.

"You spaced out for a moment there." He said, plopping back down on his seat. "Are you alright?"

She nodded, and a silence followed.

"So... what do you think about him?"

"Of Harry?" He nodded. "I don't really know him..." She realized as she said that, that she really didn't. They might have lived under the same roof for nearly 11 years but the truth of the matter was that Daisy actually knew very little about her cousin. It brought a frown to her face, and she resolved not to think about that again.

~X~

It didn't take long for an old witch with a kind face and a food trolley in tow to stop by their compartment, asking if they wanted to buy anything.

There were lots of things to chose of, and as the old witch named them, Daisy realized that all of them were things she had never even heard of before. She decided to play it safe and not buy anything but eat some of the pumpkin pasties Luna Lovegood offered her instead- she probably knew what was good and what not, since she had talked about her father going to Hogwarts.

Unfortunately for Colin, the chocolate frog he bought made a leap of faith out of the window as soon as he set it free, and none of them ever saw it again. Luna made an off-handed comment about how some (probably) magical creature with weird a name Daisy could not remember would take care of it. Daisy was just happy she did not have to witness something that looked so alive being eaten... it was kind of... sickening to think of.

The ride was a long one, and in the end Daisy regretted not buying anything to eat after all. At least Colin kept the conversation going, and over the next few hours the three of them discussed a multitude of subjects which included but was not limited to, something called 'thestrals' (Daisy was about 70% sure Luna Lovegood was making all of this up by now), their future classes, Hogwarts houses, the benefits and drawbacks of a singing teapot, and some author called Gilderoy Lockhart.

It kept them sufficiently entertained and before they even knew it, it was getting dark. A boy with red hair who announced himself to be a school prefect advised them to get changed into their robes somewhere along the way, which was how they ended up sitting in a kind of nervous, anticipating silence for the rest of the ride to Hogwarts.

"I hope I make Gryffindor house, that would be really cool." Colin whispered as they got off the train, and Luna admitted her fondness of Ravenclaw house- her mother had apparently been a Ravenclaw. Daisy just shrugged, trying to look around for a sign of where to go.

Luckily, the booming shout of "Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" was easy to hear over the big hoards of chattering of students. Daisy looked around for its source, frowning a bit when she recognized the man standing a bit to the left of a little path. He did stand out, being as big and hairy as he was, and the fact that he was surrounded by short 11-year-olds didn't very much help his situation either.

It was the man that had come after Harry last year, in that horrible cabin in the middle of the sea, he was the one that had given Dudley a pig's tail last time they had met. So really, Daisy felt like she had a valid reason for being wary as she approached him.

"Gather 'round now! Are all of ya here?" He seemed to do a quick head count before nodding to himself and checking a pocket watch she hadn't realized he's been holding. "Good! Follow me!"

After a boat ride across the dark lake, the giant lead all the first-years up to the castle's front door (at least, Daisy assumed it was), and knocked three times.

The person who opened the door, was a stern-looking woman. She was tall, and skinny and she wore maroon-coloured robes. She thanked the giant (Hagrid, she had called him) and ushered the first-year students inside the castle.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," she finally spoke up, "The start-of-term feast will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will have to be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room."

She paused there, making sure everybody was still paying attention to her. Daisy wondered if she gave this exact same speech every year, because if you asked her, it seemed like it.

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rulebreaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours. The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school."

She instructed them to wait there until she came back, so they did. The moment she left though, the silence was broken and a cacophony of nervous whispering broke out. It seemed like nobody really knew what the sorting would be like, not for sure at least- and there were several crazy theories going around.

"My brothers said we were going to have to fight a dragon to the death," The red-headed girl on her right was whispering to the boy next to her. He looked just about ready to faint, and Daisy turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow, but the girl simply shrugged nonchalantly. "I dunno though... they tend to make a lot of jokes, those two, so I doubt it."

"Yeah, like they would do that." Somebody else spoke up, "we're 11, we wouldn't even be able to fight off a cornish pixie if it came at us."

"You don't think they'll quiz us, do you?"

"I don't think so?"

"They might."

Privately, Daisy thought that it couldn't be anything _too _bad, right? Harry had gotten through it, after all. Even though grim, he hadn't seemed severely mentally scarred or damaged upon his return home... she was pretty sure such a thing wouldn't even have been legal anyway... then again, thinking of that, did wizards and witches have different laws to normal people?

Maybe? Maybe not. She was still pretty sure putting children in danger would be frowned upon by most people though, and she doubted any parents would let their kids go to a school that would endanger them. So no, they probably weren't going to be told to wrestle something dangerous.

Before her internal monologue could be continued, the woman in maroon was back. As per her instructions, they all formed a line, and soon, they were walking out of the room they had been in towards where the rest of the school sat.

The Great Hall of Hogwarts was without doubt a thing to behold. Sure, Daisy had read a couple descriptions about it, but nothing really compared with what she encountered as she followed her future classmates into the room. It was simply magical. Every piece of it. From the ancient walls, to the floating candles, to the enchanting night sky that could be seen on the ceiling.

Outside it was dark and cold and the ground was muddy. Nobody really cared about the sky, and yet inside this chamber, the night sky was simply mesmerizing. It was a clear night, apparently. Daisy could almost make out the individual stars coating the sky, and for some reason, she felt tempted to sit down and count them.

As soon as she was finished lamenting the the ceiling, she realized that here were people there as well, lots and lots of people of all ages. Most of them were seated at four tables, one for each house, Daisy belatedly realized, and some of them were sitting at the end of the hall. They were all adults, and Daisy thought it safe to assume it was where the teachers sat. She thought she saw a _ghost_ flying through a wall for a moment there, but it was gone too soon and it left her wondering if it had perhaps been a trick of light. Everybody was talking, making it impossible to make out anything more than words out of context here and there, but soon, all eyes were on them, the first-years.

There were four big glass... things... hanging from the wall. What they were for, Daisy was unsure, but they looked important.

Finally, they all came to a stop, Colin accidentally bumping into her back and apologizing. She tried to peer around the students in front of her, attempting to get a glance at whatever everyone was looking at... but she was one of the last ones and stood too far away.

The other first-years were whispering among themselves.

"What? What is it? What do you see?" Colin Creevey whispered urgently to nobody in particular, but a girl standing in front of them looked over her shoulder and shed some light on the situation.

"It's a hat."

A... hat? What for?

Before she got the time to actually ask, a deep voice spoke up, it was loud, as if he (or she? The voice did sound masculine though) was speaking into a microphone, and the hall quieted down very fast. This person- though Daisy couldn't see them- was singing, she realized. It was weird, but not unpleasant, and at least it rhymed.

Daisy didn't entirely get the song, something about lions and eagles and cunning and fairness and trials and school. It did have something to do with the sorting though, so she at least tried to pay attention.

They would... have to walk over there and... wear a hat? In front of everyone?

That didn't sound too hard. Was it like... some sort of initiation ritual?

Some admittedly pretty ridiculous ideas floated through her mind then, all of them having to do with her parents and cults and some movies of questionable historical quality she had watched a long time ago at a friend's house. She shook herself out of it.

By that time, the singing had come to an end, and they gave the person singing a polite applause.

The Professor form earlier came back, now holding a scroll.

One by one, students were alphabetically called out to go to the front, told to sit down and try on some sort of a hat. She got a glimpse of brown a couple of times, but having found herself standing behind two taller students, she still never got a proper look at how exactly the sorting happened.

She did hear the name of a House being announced each time though.

A girl named Denholm, Irene was sorted into the House called Hufflepuff, and as she walked off, Daisy already knew that if she wasn't next, she'd be the one after that. There couldn't be that many people whose surname started with a D.

"Dursley, Daisy."

_Called it._

Taking a deep breath, Daisy made her way through the huddle of students. She walked to the front, trying to keep her shoulders relaxed and her face natural even if she couldn't stop the shaking of her hands. She clenched her fists to try and stop that. She did better than some others, she reflected as she reached the stool in the middle of the hall.

There was no man, short or otherwise, standing there- and it confused her a bit, because where could he have gone without her noticing? There was only an old leather hat... it looked kind of like a cone hat- or it might've been at some point, if it wasn't so old and worn out.

Daisy sat down, and next came the hat. She slipped it over her head carefully.

She had no idea how this was going to work, but whatever she had expected, it had not been the hat "hmmm"ing in her ear thoughtfully.

_What? _She moved her head around, which was kind of stupid, because it wasn't like she could see anything anyway, with that hat on her head and everything.

"_Did I startle you?"_

Was someone standing there or... was that the hat talking to her?

What might've been a second ticked by.

Okay, no. That was just ridiculous. Hats couldn't talk. In fact, Daisy's dad would've thrown a fit if he only knew she had even thought that might be a possibility. Yeah, she was pretty certain that it was _not _the hat.

"_Well, that's rude. Of course I can talk." _There was a chuckle, and she wasn't quite so sure anymore. So... it _did_ talk. And it clicked then, really, the _hat_ had been the one singing, not some person. _"Indeed. Let's move on to your sorting now though, hmm?"_

Not only did it talk, but it could also read her mind. She stored that piece of information away under the 'it's magic so I won't bother trying to find out' part of her brain.

"H_mm. You are quite different from your cousin, aren't you? He sat here last year. You seem to be quite a bit easier to sort though... oh... those are some interesting values there, miss Dursley. Pride. Subtlety. Yesss. You like getting what you want, don't you? I think there's only one option here, really-"_

There was a pause before-

"SLYTHERIN!" The hat bellowed so loudly that Daisy couldn't repress a flinch. It was one thing to hear the thing shouting from halfway across the room, and it was quite another to have it shout that out while on your head.

All things considered though, things didn't go badly, Daisy thought to herself. She got up from the stool, turning her gaze towards the house that was applauding. They weren't quite as loud and boisterous as the table which belonged to Gryffindor House, but it was still a polite applause nonetheless.

She made her way over to the Slytherin table as the next student was called forth. It didn't escape her notice that some people were looking at her, but most seemed indifferent, so she brushed it off. She sat down next to the only boy that had been sorted in Slytherin as of yet, Kevin Bletchley, and he, at least, grinned at her.

"Not bad, there's four of us already."

The twin girls whose surname was Carrow (she couldn't remember their first names) offered a polite nod. And okay, wow, it was a bit creepy when they did things at the same time like that.

With the stress of the sorting gone, Daisy now had the time to really look around and observe each table individually. She hadn't thought of it earlier, but Harry had to be here somewhere, right? All students were. Logically, he must have seen her- was he pretending not to know her? That seemed like a good idea... but not really Harry-like.

She couldn't spot him among the older Slytherins (though, really, cunning and ambition didn't seem like traits he really possessed), and after a short while, she realized... he wasn't there at all. Not that she could see, at least.

"- bloodtraitors, the Weasleys. And three guesses who was there with them?" A blonde boy to the left of Kevin was telling his friends. He was rather loud, so it was difficult not to overhear their conversation. None of them seemed really interested in the sorting.

There was a silence during which the blonde boy obviously waited for an answer, but instead his friends just stared back at him dumbly.

"Seriously? Who is _always _with Weasley? He hangs around that mudblood, Granger, as well."

"Uh... Potter?"

"Of course! The _famous Harry Potter._" He sounded bitter, but also condescending. "So then my father said-"

"Did you say... Harry Potter?" The words had left her mouth before she could stop them, and she realized her mistake belatedly, when all eyes were on her already. The blonde boy was looking at her with a scrutinizing gaze, lips set in a thin line.

"And who are you?"

She hesitated for a moment.

"My name's Daisy. Daisy... Dursley."

He got a faraway look, as if trying to remember something stored deep inside his brain, but finally he shrugged.

"Never heard of that name before. Half-blood, I assume?"

She wasn't sure what a 'half-blood' was, but she nodded. Going along with it sounded like the most foolproof option right now.

"Well, I'm Draco Malfoy." She was pretty sure his name was supposed to mean something to her (the way he said it implied that at least) but... it just sounded like a weird name to her. Daisy didn't voice her opinion. "And... yes. Potter is in my year." He looked like he had swallowed a sour lemon "The golden boy of Gryffindor, of course."

Daisy glanced at the Gryffindor table, but as her eyes swept over it again, she still couldn't spot her cousin.

The sorting went on as normal, and with a Whiddon, Spencer being sorted into Slytherin, the sorting ceremony was finally over. Daisy was rather happy, because her stomach was growling and more than once had she received pointed looks by her classmates.

Before they could have dinner though, the headmaster stood up to say a few words. He was an old man, with long white hair and a beard. Behind his glasses, his eyes twinkled warmly.

His 'speech' consisted of a string of words which made absolutely no sense, despite that, he still received an applause as he sat back down.

As she looked back down, she realized that the table in front of her was no longer empty, but filled with plates and food and drinks and all sorts of things. It looked like a feast befitting a king.

Nobody wasted any time as they started filling their plates with whatever they felt like eating. The food was really good, and after two servings, Daisy's stomach felt like it might burst.

All around her, conversations were happening.

The twins were talking among themselves in hushed tones, and Kevin Blechley had started a heated conversation with the boy called Spencer about something that sounded like kiwi-ditch ("Did you see the match against the Chudley Cannons last Saturday? That was so embarrassing!" "It was terrible. My dad lost eighteen galleons- who thought the Tornadoes would do so bad...").

"Do you think I could get an autograph from Professor Lockhart?" The girl next to Daisy questioned, and Daisy simply shrugged.

"He does seem like he'd enjoy the attention, to be honest."

"Oh I'm sure he would." A boy sitting a bit further down the table said as he took a bite from his apple pie. His name escaped Daisy, but she remembered him from the sorting- the hat had taken a while to sort him. "He went to Hogwarts with my mum. She said he was a real attention-seeker, even back then. Didn't really approve of him being a Professor... but you know, I bet it's hard to find teachers when the subject is cursed."

"Cursed?" Daisy echoed, tilting her head a bit. That was the first time she'd ever heard of that.

"That's stupid, it's only a rumour." The girl next to her rolled her eyes.

"Sounds like a curse to me. They say last year's Defense teacher died. Didn't the one before that resign after breaking his leg? I bet finding somebody willing to take the spot each year isn't easy..."

The girl huffed, still muttering something about it being nonsense.

"Oh, and the name is Niles, by the way. I'm Niles Hanley."

"Daisy Dursley."

"And I'm Mildred Peebles."

They shook hands, and soon they were back to talking about trivial things. It wasn't until about another half an hour later, when everybody had eaten, that the food disappeared and the feast was done.

Daisy remembered being lead to the Slytherin common room by two prefects, and she was pretty sure they said some things once they reached the common room, but by that time, the only thing on Daisy's mind was sleep.

She hadn't realized how exhausting this day had been, but it seemed like the moment her head hit the pillow, she was fast asleep.


	3. Meetings and reunions

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter**

* * *

_Daisy Dursley was six years old. She was a big girl now._

_As such, she had to go school, like all the girls and boys her age, and she had to answer all of the big people questions her teacher asked. Daisy Dursley took this task very seriously._

_Today, her teacher had given them some homework- not the normal kiddie stuff like copying words, or learning how to read long words, or even solving math problems like 2+2 or 3-1. No, today Daisy's teacher had asked them all a very important question: "What do you want to be when you grow up?"_

_Daisy had thought long and hard about her answer, and even though there were thousands of things that came to her mind, none of them really seemed to be what she wanted. She thought of the obvious answer first- she wanted to be a princess. But she practically already was one, wasn't she? Her room was all princess-y, and she was her mummy and daddy's little princess- or so they always told her. Harry could be the handmaiden and Dudley... he could be the royal dog._

_So no, a princess wasn't it._

_She asked her mummy about it, and Petunia Dursley talked about getting married, starting a family with somebody, and raising children. A stay-at-home mum like her. Daisy didn't feel like spending her days picking up stinky socks, cooking and cleaning while somebody else went out and had all the fun though. And besides, the thought of kissing a boy was icky, so Daisy moved along._

_Her dad sold drills, she knew that. His work was one of his favourite things to talk about at the breakfast table. Yet when she asked him, he told her the same as her mother had- she would grow up, find a good husband with a fine car, settle down and have kids. It was a bit frustrating, that this was all her parents thought she would and should amount to in her life. When she voiced her opinions ("but daddy, what if I don't want to get married, or have kids?), she was waved off ("Nonsense! You're just too young right now. You just wait, before you know it, you'll be moving out. Now go play with your brother.")._

_Dudley was a meanie that pulled her hair and called her names, so Daisy didn't bother going to him._

_When she spoke to her aunt, Marge, on the phone, she had clearly had one glass of her funny-smelling drinks too many, and told her that "she needed no ruddy man to run her life for her" and that she was "better off buying a dog" instead. As nice as the thought of a dog had been, it hadn't really given an answer to her question though..._

_Harry had simply looked at her strangely and then admitted that he would have liked to have some friends._

_So she sat down in her house's backyard and thought- what _did _she want?_

_Did she want to get married? Maybe one day. (But boys were still icky.)_

_Did she want to run a company, like her dad? It sounded kind of boring, really. And anyway, Dudley would obviously inherit that. Besides, she'd sooner kiss a frog than work with Dudley._

_Did she want to... be a teacher, like the lady across the street? No, not really._

_Daisy sighed and rolled around so that she was facing the grass. She let her head fall and groaned- surely mummy would throw a fit if she saw her like that- but at the moment she didn't really care._

_All of her options were just... so overwhelmingly normal._

_She lived in a normal house, in a normal town, in a normal street, with her normal family. Her parents were both perfectly normal and so (she guessed) were Dudley and her. Harry wasn't, but Harry had always been a bit strange._

_She realized then, as she lay with her face in the grass, smelling the soil and probably getting her dress all dirty, that she, too, was normal. She was just like every other girl at school. They played with the same toys, watched the same TV-shows and talked about the same things._

_And then she looked at the people around her and realized that she was not the only one. All of her friends had a mummy and a daddy, and some of them had siblings. Sometimes their mummy worked, but other times she stayed at home, like her own mummy. Most daddies worked long hours, just like her daddy._

_When removing the details, there was essentially no difference between them at all._

_Just like that, Daisy Dursley finally knew what she wanted to be when she grew up._

"_When I grow up, I want to be special."_

~X~

"... ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED, YOUR FATHER'S FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK, IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT AND IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT BACK HOME!"

The bright red envelope fell down, leaving a heavy, awkward kind of silence hanging over the Great Hall of Hogwarts as all eyes remained glued on the Gryffindor table. The redheaded boy's pale face flushed a deep bright red and he looked down at his food in embarrassment.

It was Daisy's first day at Hogwarts, and it had already started out rather spectacularly.

Remembering she still had a piece of toast in her hand, the blonde quickly took a bite, chewing for a few moments before swallowing it and turning to her classmates.

"What was that all about?" She questioned, her eyebrows furrowed as the blonde boy from last night burst into loud peels of laughter. The boys sitting to his left and right joined him only seconds later, and so did the girl sitting opposite of him. Daisy would soon come to realize that this particular behavior would be a recurring pattern when it came to Draco Malfoy and his friends.

"Looks like somebody got themselves a howler..." Niles Hanley shrugged, "wouldn't like to be standing in their shoes right now."

"Yeah," Daisy agreed, the whole display had looked anything but pleasant.

"Did you hear though?" Mildred whispered conspiratorially as she leaned in over the table, which just caused the rest of them to follow her example. "That Weasley actually _flew a muggle cart thing _to Hogwarts."

"You mean a car?"

"Yeah, that." She waved her hand dismissively. "What is it anyway?"

Daisy opened her mouth to ask if she had been living under a rock for the past 11 years (had she seriously just asked what a _car _was?), but thought better of it and ended up deciding against that.

"Isn't that a big box thing, used for transportation?" Another first-year Slytherin joined in, looking a bit uncertain, but still curious.

"Yeah, it's kind of like the Knight Bus." The girl sitting next to Niles supplied. "Only that it's privately owned, and you can't fit as many people in there."

"...oh."

Turning her gaze back to the Gryffindor table, Daisy's eyes swept over several redheaded students before realizing for the first time that, _there_, right next to the boy with the howler, in plain sight, a boy with a familiar face sat. She squinted her eyes to make sure, but that unruly black hair, the old round glasses and skinny frame were impossible to mistake.

It was her cousin. Harry Potter.

Quickly, Daisy grabbed her schedule and held it out in front of her face. He didn't seem to be aware of her presence there... not quite yet, so Daisy preferred to play it safe and keep it that way. For now at least.

"Looks like our first class is Defense against the Dark Arts." Mildred Peebles spoke up. When nobody responded, she rolled her eyes and went on, "I'm going to go get my books for today, are any of you going to join me?"

There were a few unenthusiastic head shakes and shrugs. Daisy nodded.

"I'll go with you. I'm done eating anyway." She drank out the last bit of pumpkin juice left in her cup (not quite the same as orange juice, but still not bad), and followed the brunette down to the dungeons.

~X~

School life at Hogwarts, as it turned out, wasn't all that different from regular school life back at home when boiled down to the hard basics.

Because sure, there were all sort of magic things involved (like the wand waving, and spells, and weird incantations that were impossible to remember), and that was odd and beautiful and simply amazing, but in a way... school was still school. There were teachers with certain expectations, and assignments and deadlines. And, honestly, Daisy knew how to deal with that... so falling into pace had honestly gone much more smoothly than she could have hoped or expected.

That Friday morning started out just like all other mornings before it had, namely, it started out with Daisy waking up to find the Carrow twins and Peebles still peacefully snoozing. A look to her other side also confirmed the fact that Melville was already up and about and no longer in the room. Leroy was sitting at the end of her bed, licking his fur clean and only glancing up at Daisy for a moment or so, before going back to what he had previously been doing.

The witch took note of the sound of running water as she sat up, tiredly rubbing the sleep out of her eyes before taking a moment to stretch her arms. A clock informed her that it was almost time to go up to the Great Hall for breakfast, and at that, Daisy swung her legs out of bed.

Her bare feet landed on the silver rug next to her bed. It took her a moment to locate a pair of socks and pull them on- today was black with purple stripes, apparently- and a pair of slippers followed.

The Slytherin dorms were kind of dark, but not bad at all altogether- a bit on the cold side, if anything, but there were other aspects of it made up for that. The walls were made out of stone and at the side of each bed (there were five of them, placed in a row across the wall), there was a carpet- every second carpet was silver, the first one being green.

There was also a large window at the end of the room, which was currently covered by heavy velvet drapes of a green colour, but when pushed aside, the bottom of the lake was what was visible. Sometimes, fish swam by, and Daisy was sure that she had seen a gigantic squid at least a few times.

It wasn't an unpleasant place to be, Daisy actually rather liked it.

The next few minutes were spent getting dressed, and somewhere between then and Melville getting out of the shower, the rest woke up as well. Daisy patiently waited for Peebles to get ready, and then they were off to start the day.

The first class of the day, was Potions with Professor Snape. And as only an idiot would willingly be late for that, Peebles and her made sure to leave the breakfast table right after they were done eating, no dilly-dallying and hanging around for idle chit-chat.

Professor Snape, as it had turned out, wasn't much more cheerful when standing in front of a classroom than he had been when he had spoken to Daisy's mother or lead her around Diagon Alley about a month ago. In fact, Daisy thought he seemed even more sour now than he had back then.

"Do you think he just dislikes kids?" She had asked on her way back from her first potions class, her head tilted in confusion. August Peebles (Mildred's older brother who had taken the liberty to show them to their classes whenever convenient), had laughed and simply shrugged.

"Probably just the Gryffindors. Mind you, they _do _have the tendency to be insufferable." Daisy had pondered over that for a while, and really, it seemed to be the truth. Never once had she witnessed Snape lashing out at Slytherins- he even seemed to favour them in comparison to other houses. When she asked about that, August simply replied with:

"Oh, didn't you know? Professor Snape is the head of Slytherin house."

It had made the whole situation somewhat clearer, to be honest.

There were only a handful of Gryffindor students already there when the two Slytherins arrived at the dungeons, and though the Weasley girl threw them a distrusting look, the rest ignored them as they took their usual seats at the very front of the classroom.

Slowly, more and more students started arriving, some Gryffindor whose name Daisy didn't know making a spectacular entrance five minutes after class had already started, with a half-eaten piece of toast still in his hand. Professor Snape gave him an unamused look before telling him to sit down.

The rest of the hour went by in a normal fashion. That is to say, the students worked in silence while Professor Snape stalked about the room intimidatingly, stopping at random intervals to look at students' potions and make (usually disheartening) comments about their progress.

"If you bothered to stop talking to your neighbour for a few moments, miss Weasley, then maybe you would have noticed that you need to add the horned slugs _before _the porcupine quills."

The ginger flushed at being made the center of attention, immediately shutting her mouth as Daisy and some of her fellow Slytherins snickered. Weasley quickly moved over to the remaining ingredients spread out on her bench, probably looking for something to fix the damage.

"Oh don't bother." Snape sneered. "It's ruined now anyway. And Creevey, for the last time, _put your wand away_."

As he moved along, Daisy looked back down at her own potion, only to realize she should really turn down the heat a bit before it reached a boiling point and ruined the whole thing. She set to fixing that, just as she heard Snape telling one of her classmates that: _"You need to crush the snake fangs, you stupid boy, don't just add them like that."._

Eight points from Gryffindor and several snide comments later, Daisy was stirring her potion- confident that she had gotten it at least partially right. It had the right colour at the very least... though she wasn't too sure about why (or how) there were bubbles in it.

She carefully poured some of her potion into a flask, sealing it and taking a moment to write her name on the little tag. Writing with a quill was still something she was getting used to though, and she was in the middle of being annoyed at the "ley" in Dursley having been smudged up by accident, when a deafening _CLANG _filled the room.

Daisy barely had the time to turn her head and look around before a pained cry took over- some Gryffindor jumping back frantically, cradling her hand to her chest and nearly pushing over the empty desk behind her. Professor Snape was next to her in barely moments, demanding to see the damage, and it was only then that Daisy realized what had happened.

Whatever the girl had been doing, it had resulted in her cauldron falling over and spilling its hot contents all over her hands. She winced, that potion had to have been nearly boiling... Daisy had never burnt herself before, but the girl's hand was looking very red and it took no real effort to imagine that it was painful.

"You're going to have to take that up to Pomfrey." Snape told her, looking remarkably calm and collected for a person standing in front of a crying 11-year-old. "Dursley. you're done. Take Roberts to the infirmary."

Daisy blinked, opened her mouth. Then closed it again.

"But, uh, I don't, uh, know where that is?" She asked, even as she got up from her chair and took a hesitant step towards the Gryffindor.

"First floor. Up the staircase and to the right." Daisy nodded and lead the still crying girl out of the classroom. She held her arm carefully as she pulled her along, trying to find something to talk about that would make her think of something else because, honestly, the crying was making her uncomfortable. True to Professor Snape's instructions, the hospital wing of Hogwars was exactly where she'd been told it would be, and as she entered with Roberts in tow, it was only seconds before this 'Madam Pomfrey' appeared and started gushing over her new patient.

"It was an, um, potion mishap..." Daisy awkwardly explained on Roberts' behalf when asked what happened. She idly took note of the bell ringing in the distance, but the woman was talking again.

"Oh, _of course_! And here I was thinking there might not be any within the first week after all. No such luck." Madam Pomfrey sighed. "Oh hush, child. Sarah, was it? I'll fix that hand of yours before you can say "medi-witch". Now, what was the potion you were making, dear?"

"A- a cure for bo-boils, ma'am. But it was v-very hot and-"

"I see. Just a burn, then? That's easy to solve." She dismissed Daisy ("there's no need for you to be here, you should get going to your next class. Just tell your professor Sarah here will be a bit late"), before setting on to magicking the burn away... or whatever it was that she was about to do... Daisy wasn't sure.

It was just as she got out of the infirmary though, stupidly forgetting to check for any people passing by, that she bumped into somebody. She stumbled, but it was far from enough to actually knock her over or anything. Just the element of surprise at work.

"Oh, I'm sorry." The other person quickly said, and it was only as Daisy straightened up and looked back to tell whoever it was that "it's okay" or "no problem" or something like that, that she realized her mistake.

The person she had bumped into wasn't just anybody. It was the very person she had been actively avoiding for the past week. She actually considered looking away and making a run for it, but judging by the look on his face, Daisy had already been recognized.

There he was standing. Harry James Potter, in all his wizard-y glory. Well... not really. He just looked shell-shocked, his eyes the size of saucers as he opened and closed his mouth uncomprehendingly, like a goldfish. Daisy decided to let it slip, because yeah, she was probably the last person he had been expecting to come across while wandering the halls of Hogwarts.

She also noticed his two friends were with him- Weasley and Granger (Draco Malfoy talked about them a surprising lot, for someone who claimed to despise them), both of whom just looked kind of confused.

Gryffindors, all three of them, Daisy remarked as her eyes swept over their red-and-gold ties. They seemed to have done the same for her, because Weasley at least, was frowning.

Clearing her throat, Daisy decided she might as well get this awkward conversation over with. The sooner, the better.

"Hi Harry." The forced cheerfulness in her voice almost made herself cringe. Great. Instead, she forced herself to keep her ground. "Been a while, huh?"

"... Daisy?" Harry finally chocked out, as if he didn't entirely believe what he was looking at. She didn't really blame him, had she been in his shoes, she'd probably have been just as surprised.

"Yep, the one and only."

"But- _what_? How can you- why are you- how are you here?"

"Shouldn't that be obvious?" She pointed at her Slytherin tie and emblem, shrugging as she stood there awkwardly for a few more moments. Because, yeah, this was... terribly awkward.

"Erm... Harry? Everything alright there, mate?" The redhead questioned, his eyes still on Daisy- more confused than distrusting at the moment. "Do you... know her or something?"

"Well, that's- I mean, she's my-"

"Look," Daisy interrupted him before he could go on, she could hear some familiar voices nearing the hall she was in, and she didn't really want to have to explain all this. "You have classes. I have classes. Just- just, let's talk about this later, okay? I'm sure your friend over there doesn't want to be late for her next class." She nodded at the bushy-haired girl, who seemed embarrassed at the fact that she had been caught glancing at her watch every few seconds. Daisy shrugged. "I'd rather not be late either."

Hearing the voices getting worryingly close, Daisy glanced around her cousin before licking her lips. A nervous habit.

"I've really got to go. Sorry. Bye."

She sprinted off in the direction of the hall she knew her classmates would come from, briefly being able to hear Weasley ask "what was that about?" before the three of them were out of earshot and she was surrounded by her own housemates.

Mildred complained about having been forced to carry her bag, and Daisy took it over from her as they climbed up the stairs to get to Professor Flitwick's classroom. Conversations were carried out all around her, but really, Daisy couldn't focus on any one of them... her mind was buzzing, livid and possibly going into an overdrive as she worried about one thing, and one thing only.

Harry.

She spent the better part of her day thinking about him, regretting her actions and wishing she'd handled the situation differently. What if he went out there and told everybody that they were cousins? From what little she had heard of him, Harry Potter was not a very well-liked individual in Slytherin house... it could potentially ruin whatever little acceptance she had... not that it was like Harry to do something with malicious intent, just for the purpose of inconveniencing somebody, but it certainly would sound like something he'd do unknowingly.

She worked herself up so much, that she was unable to sleep that night. She just tossed and turned uncomfortably, different scenarios of what awaited her the next day invading her mind and refusing to leave her alone no matter how hard she tried to shut them out. In the end, she decided that it was no use sleeping, and that she might as well get out of bed.

She put on her slippers and blindly made her way out of the dorm, always keeping a hand on the wall... just to be safe. It wasn't a long walk, but the fact that she had to navigate in the dark made it seem so.

Luckily, the Slytherin common room was still partially lit- even at 4:39 in the morning. The fire was still going, even though its flames were nearly doused by now, and the heat it gave off was insufficient. The uncovered windows were the other light source, with the full moon shining brightly above the lake, blueish window-like shapes stretched out across the floor. It was still dim, but there was enough light not to need to hold the wall to get to where she wanted to be.

Daisy made her way over to one of the leather couches, and it was only then that she realized that she was, in fact, not alone.

"Trouble sleeping?" The figure sitting in the green armchair by the fire spoke up, almost making her jump. Almost. Not really. He seemed to be playing a game of chess against himself, and his attention wasn't on her momentarily, so Daisy took the opportunity to sit down in one of the couches surrounding the fire.

"Yeah."

She pulled her legs up to her chest and hugged them, resting her chin on her knees as she watched the boy play chess. It wasn't normal chess- but some kind of magical chess in which the pieces could talk and move on their own... not that Daisy had ever played chess before, but she was pretty sure the ones at home didn't do any of that.

"You?" She finally asked, just to fill the silence. Might as well get her mind off her own thoughts.

The boy shrugged.

"I don't sleep much."

Another twenty minutes or so passed, and the boy managed to checkmate the white king- thus winning the game. The black chess pieces whooped happily, the white ones returned to their own side and sulked. It was kind of amusing.

The boy asked if she wanted to play, and Daisy shrugged. Which was how they ended up sitting opposite of each other, with a chessboard in the middle and a couple of very disgruntled chess pieces shouting at her for trying to put them back on their right places on the board.

"Don't pick them up, they don't like that."

"I noticed."

He sighed.

"You've never played chess before, have you?"

"I know some stuff." Daisy pouted. "Like, um, horses can move in an L shape, right? And, well... that's... these are... soldiers?" There was a pause before- "…is it that obvious?"

"Pretty obvious, yes." The boy chuckled.

"Well, teach me your ways then, oh wise one." Her words got her a raised eyebrow and an amused huff_. _He rolled his eyes before setting on the task that was teaching Daisy how to play chess.

It was... complicated, Daisy thought. The boy assured her that the chess pieces would help her though, and so reluctantly, they started the game. They played in silence for a few turns, only the advice shouted out by (rather rude) chess pieces filling the common room.

"You're a first year, aren't you? I don't think I've seen you around before."

"I am." Daisy confirmed. "Just got here this week."

"Thought so. How are you enjoying yourself?"

"Well it's... different from what I'm used to. I've never gone to a boarding school before and all that... It's nice though. A bit overwhelming at first. But... I think I like it."

He nodded, then advised her to move her king.

Looking down Daisy realized that, yeah, that sounded like a pretty good idea about right now. She moved her horse to block the path. Or well, more like, she told the horse to move, and after some protesting, it did.

"How come your chess pieces never shout at you?"

"I've played frequently enough for them to trust my judgment."

"Oh..."

"Your turn, by the way."

"Right."

Before she could actually do anything though, the common room was filled with noise, and it made both of them look up from their game as several students dressed in green robes entered the common room. Some of them still looked sleepy, while others were chatting excitedly and two of them were laughing about something. All of them seemed to be carrying brooms though- the exact same brooms, and the boy opposite of her seemed to roll his eyes as they heard Draco Malfoy boast about how the brooms had been a gift from his father.

They paid no attention to the two of them, and instead made a beeline for the exit. The boy commented that that was the Slytherin quidditch team. Daisy had no idea what that was.

Two losses later, it seemed like the common room was finally beginning to be a populated part of the castle again. Several students of different ages had left for breakfast already, and some others just hung around the common room in their pajamas.

"Well," The boy finally said as he spotted some of his friends coming out of their dorms, "that's my cue to go. Let's play again sometime, if you get any other random bouts of insomnia."

Daisy nodded, sitting in silence for a few moments as she watched him go. It occurred to her that she hadn't even asked for his name... well, there was always a next time, she supposed.

~X~

She cornered Harry right outside the Great Hall.

Well, it wasn't as much as 'cornered' as it was waiting for him to get out so she could grab him by the arm and pull him off to an empty corridor in the dungeons, where they hopefully wouldn't be overheard.

Harry flailed and protested, but still followed her without too much trouble after realizing it was only her, and not anybody hostile. His two friends, of course, seemed to also have followed them.

"I want to talk with Harry," She pointed out, but they didn't get the hint. Or more likely, they got the hint, and decided to ignore it. "So if you could _leave us alone, _that would be appreciated."

"Yeah, in your dreams. Whatever you want to tell Harry, you can say in front of us!" The redhead spoke up, and Daisy noted that he had already pulled his wand out. Daisy raised an eyebrow at it, or more accurately, its state, because it looked like it had been snapped in two and repaired with duct tape.

"... Are you sure you want to use that...?" Did wands even still work after having been snapped in half?

"I-"

"Ronald, calm down, I'm sure you don't want a repeat of earlier." All three of them seemed to wince at that thought, "Daisy- it was Daisy, right?- we're Harry's friends, we just want to make sure he will be alright." The bushy-haired girl explained calmly, holding her palms in the air, trying to placate her.

"I just want to talk to him. Why are you- … oh." She belatedly realized that they were Gryffindors, and she a Slytherin- and apparently, that was enough of a reason for them to distrust her. She had been faced with this sort of thing before, it seemed to be rather common... And well, if Harry had talked about his home life at all to them... she supposed that was an added reason not to like her. "It's because of this, isn't it?" She moved her hand around, loosely gesturing towards her Hogwarts uniform, and mostly, everything that showed her House. "Well relax. I've been here for a _week_. Do you really believe there's anything I can do that's more harmful than throwing my wand at him?"

"We didn't think you-"

"Yes, you did. Or at least your friend seems to think so."

"Well, _your_ House's quidditch team stole _our _team's practice hour so-"

"... what?"

Harry cleared his throat, turning everybody's attention to him.

"I, uh, it's alright. You can go. I'll meet you at the common room?"

"But Harry-"

"No, really. I'll be fine. She's just... my little cousin. She won't hurt me." He didn't sound all too convinced of that, which did make her raise an eyebrow. She might not be the most desired company, but she wasn't Dudley. She had her limits.

Reluctantly, Harry's friends left. A silence fell.

"So..." Harry started. "Daisy, huh?"

"Yeah."

"And you're... a witch? And Slytherin."

"Yes to both... I know it's probably a lot to swallow. It was a bit of a shock for everyone, honestly."

"And... uncle-"

"They weren't too happy, as you can imagine."

"Right. So... you don't... hate magic?"

"I guess not? It's kind of cool." Daisy smiled a bit, but dropped it soon after. Harry seemed to be going through some internal struggle of some kind. She sighed. "Look, I know that I'm probably the last person you expected or even wanted to come across here- I get that, but this is how things are... so hear me out. Please." He didn't say anything, so she nodded and went on. "Let's handle this the way we always handle things back at home. Let's ignore it. Okay? It's the easiest thing to do."

"You want to pretend I'm not here?" Ouch.

"Well, no, I meant more like... we stay out of each other's business. I won't bother you, and you won't bother me, and we'll both be happy."

"No tricks?" Daisy shrugged, though it wasn't as carefree as she would've liked.

"Nope. In case you hadn't noticed, you have more of a leverage than I do."

Harry looked confused for a moment, opening his mouth to undoubtedly ask about it, but then realization seemed to suddenly hit him and he shut his mouth again.

"Oh... you want me to keep the fact that we're cousins quiet."

"I do. You're not... very popular among Slytherins."

"Yeah, I bet."

"I'll owe you one." Daisy offered. Harry was quiet for a bit, then finally, coming to a decision, he nodded.

"Alright. Yeah, I can do that."


	4. Chess and mild annoyances

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter**

* * *

It all started when Daisy shuffled back to her common room after lunch.

The Slytherin quidditch team seemed to be back from wherever they had disappeared off to that morning, and they were all seated in the leather sofas, animatedly retelling some story to the group of students gathered around them. It was mostly Malfoy talking to be honest, but the rest of the team joined in from time to time, laughing or making some snide comment.

Daisy made her way over to them, finding her classmates and taking her seat next to Mildred, who looked up at her and rolled her eyes.

"And behold, she comes back at last! Where have _you _been all morning?" She asked, and Daisy simply shrugged.

"Around." It wasn't, technically, a lie. "What's going on here?"

"Oh, Draco's just retelling this story about how Weasley tried to hex him for calling his girlfriend a mudblood, and how the spell ended up backfiring."

"A what?"

She didn't get an answer to her question. Instead, Malfoy went into an unnecessarily detailed description about how, after getting hit by his own spell, Weasley proceeded to vomit slugs. Several "_eww"_s and other disgusted noises were heard from the group surrounding him.

"You should've seen their faces! That one kid with the muggle camera kept taking pictures!"

"It was disgusting and the best thing I've ever seen at the same time." One of the students wearing a quidditch robe said, and the rest nodded enthusiastically.

"It's a miracle nobody ended up in the hospital wing. His wand has been malfunctioning all week."

"Yeah! In Chrams yesterday it just flew out of his hands and hit Flitwick square in the face. Left this great ugly green boil for everyone to see."

Daisy was suddenly really happy that wand of Weasley's hadn't been used against her during their short encounter earlier.

"He really needs to get a new one." Another Slytherin chimed in in distaste. "Broken wands can be dangerous."

"Didn't you hear when he said the name _Weasley_?" Mildred joined in, snickering meanly. "I bet they're too broke to afford a new plate when it breaks, let alone a wand!"

A great deal of the students in the common room started laughing, Malfoy just a bit too obnoxious and loud. He was a showoff, and apparently rich, so nobody ever said anything about it.

She wasn't sure how, or why, but in the short while she had been at Hogwarts, Daisy had discovered that within Slytherin House certain students seemed to hold a higher position in comparison to others... and it didn't always go according to school year either. It also seemed to be something that only went on in Slytherin, from what she had observed during classes.

She had yet to determine what this social status of sorts was based on.

"That was great! Perfect. What was your name again? Peebles?"

"Yes, Mildred."

"I need to tell Father about this, he'll love it."

Personally, Daisy thought it was kind of lame, but Mildred looked very smug right now, so she decided not to mention it.

"I think I'm going to tackle that potions essay that's due on Monday." Daisy finally announced, pushing herself up from the couch and attracting the looks of some of the people sitting around her. Most of them lost interest fairly quickly.

"The essay?!" Mildred echoed, sounding surprised and spiteful at the same time. She wasn't a great fan of homework. "But it's Saturday...!"

"...so?"

"Wow. I swear you should've been a Ravenclaw, Dursley. Really."

"Well excuse me, Peebles." Daisy rolled her eyes, "Not everyone finishes their homework in history of magic, thirty minutes before it's due."

Retreating to her dorms, Daisy pulled her trunk out from under the bed. She grabbed all of the supplies that she would be needing- her book, some parchment and quills- and after a moment of consideration, she decided that the weather was too nice not to sit outside.

After a whole morning of being cooped up inside the castle, the sunlight that assaulted her eyes as soon as she was past the front door hurt her eyes. She closed them for a moment, then opened them again and waited patiently until they were adjusted.

It was a bit chilly, but luckily, she had dressed warmly for the occasion. She was wearing a warm jumper under her robes, as well as a pair of jeans and warm socks.

The only other time that Daisy had been outside the castle this week, had been this Tuesday, when her classmates and her had needed to get to Herbology with Professor Sprout. Herbology was taught in one of the greenhouses at the far end of the perimeter, close to a wooden hut and some pumpkin patches and just a bit further away from the Forbidden Forest. It had been raining that Tuesday, so it hadn't been the best time for sightseeing, but Daisy did remember walking by a lake on her trek to the greenhouse.

So the lake it was.

Retracing her footsteps wasn't that hard, and soon Daisy was standing in front of the lake. She tested the grass, making sure it wasn't too wet before sitting down and spreading out her materials in front of her. She got comfortable, and then got to work.

The annoying thing about parchment and quills was that she always had to make two versions of her essays- first was the one with all the scratched out parts and mistakes and ugly ink smears, and then came the 'official' one- the essay she would give to the teacher. Why wizards couldn't use more conventional means of writing was beyond Daisy. It would certainly make her life a whole lot easier.

She took no note of how late it was, and Daisy only stopped writing when she realized that it was getting kind of dark- too dark to write without proper lighting. She pulled her wand out of her robes and with a little wave, said "_Lumos."_

The tip of her wand lit up, and just as always, Daisy couldn't get the smile that spread out on her lips to leave. Magic. She was doing _magic_. It made her feel a bit giddy inside. Collecting all of her things (always being careful not to mess up the ink as it was still drying), she realized it was already dinnertime- in fact, she had missed the beginning of it.

Daisy wasted no more time getting back inside and hurrying over to the Great Hall.

Luckily, there wasn't exactly a strictly set time for meals- they all got served at a certain time, but students were free to come and eat whenever they were hungry- just as long as it was before the food disappeared. Still, most preferred to be there early, lest all the good things got eaten.

"Sorry, lost track of time." She told Mildred as she seated herself next to her and grabbed some of the leftover meat and potatoes. They were slightly cool now, but still as delicious as they had been on the first day.

The kitchen staff of Hogwarts, whoever they may be, deserved a pat on their back for their hard work.

"I thought you wouldn't turn up anymore. Everyone's done eating."

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I told you I was going to be doing my essay."

Mildred seemed peeved about having been left alone practically all day (Daisy made a mental note to make it up to her), but the girl across the table seemed interested.

"Oh, I thought I was the only one getting my essays over with this early on... which one did you make?" Sylvia Melville said. She was a rather short girl, even compared to Daisy, but her curly auburn hair made her stand out in a crowd. Daisy vaguely remembered her complaining about how the green night dress her mother had gifted her for her birthday made her look like a piece of Christmas decoration.

"Potions." She said before stuffing another forkful of mashed potatoes in her mouth. She was hungry right now- she could care less about her image.

"We should compare."

"Sure, yeah."

~X~

After the first week was over, days seemed to fly by, and soon enough everybody was settled in a routine.

It was somewhere at about the beginning of October, that a notice that had not been there before appeared on the notice board. Spencer Whiddon had been the first to notice it, and a great commotion had followed his announcement that that very Wednesday, they would be attending their first flying lessons ever. On a broom.

Now, _that_, was something Daisy was not comfortable doing.

Unfortunately, as all dreaded things seemed to do, that Wednesday just kept crawling closer and closer, and soon Daisy found herself lying awake on her bed, tossing and turning and mainly just being very disgruntled at her sleeplessness.

There was no real point in trying, Daisy finally decided when the clock's little hand moved over to the number "3". So why bother? She got up, and just like every time before that she had happened to have a sleepless night, grabbed her jacket and made her way over to the common room.

He wasn't there this time, the boy who played chess. A bit disappointing, but not altogether unexpected, she told herself- even he had to sleep sometimes.

Daisy set up the chessboard for herself, picking the white ones just as she always did. It had become somewhat of a routine by now, playing chess when she couldn't sleep, even if Theodore had joined her every time before. She was content with simply sitting by the fire, playing against the black chess pieces and having conversations about chess tactics with them instead though. It at least took her mind off things.

"Don't move me! Move the horse!"

"What?! No! Who will guard the king then?!"

"It's a risk we need to take, if all goes well then-"

"Can't sleep?" The sudden sound of a voice startled Daisy, whose head shot up to look around. It was only the chess boy, Theodore, she realized belatedly as he took off the cloak he had been wearing.

Wait, a cloak?

"You were outside...?" She questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, but then it started raining so I decided to cut my walk short."

"Oh..."

"You?"

"I just couldn't sleep."

He nodded. He then walked over to Daisy and sat down opposite of her, taking a few moments to cast what Daisy recognized as a warming spell upon himself before taking his place as the commander of the black chess pieces.

"Do you ever actually sleep?" The blonde asked, and Theodore shrugged.

"I do, just not much."

"Right."

They played in silence for a while, Theodore managing to take one of her horses and a soldier while Daisy took his queen. He had started at a disadvantage... but still, he was a good player so it wouldn't surprise Daisy if he somehow managed to turn the tables and win against all odds.

"... is flying a broom difficult?"

Theodore gave her a long look which almost made her regret her question... maybe... she shouldn't have brought it up. It wasn't like she knew him that well anyway- she didn't even know his last name or anything else about him other than: 1) he liked playing chess, 2) he was good at it, and 3) he didn't sleep much. He had seemed decent enough though... at least during their nightly chess matches.

There were a number of muggleborn students (students like her, whose parents weren't magical) at Hogwarts, or so she had come to realize, but... they didn't seem to be really well-liked among Slytherins. Was Theodore one of those Slytherins that looked down on muggleborns? Had she just given herself away?

"No, not really. Though you've got to have a feel for it, I guess." Theodore shrugged. "I'm guessing your first flying lesson is going to be soon?"

"Um, yeah... tomorrow- well, today."

"If it's any consolation, you can't probably do worse than Longbottom did last year."

"...why? What happened?"

"Lost control of his broom two seconds after mounting it- ended up with a broken wrist."

"Oh, that's reassuring...!" He snickered, seemingly amused by her distress. Daisy huffed.

"What was your last name again?"

"... Dursley." Daisy hesitated for a moment before asking a question that had been bugging her for a while. "What year are you in, Theodore?"

"My second. Check, by the way."

"What?! _How?_"

"Practice, Dursley. Lots and lots of practice."

Realizing her King was practically surrounded and that there was no way out anyway, Daisy sighed. She flipped over her own King, and he cried out in protest at being manhandled like that.

"That's another checkmate for you, I guess."

"That's five out of five games I've won, you're going to need to step up your game, Dursley."

"Oh watch your ego, you don't want it competing with Draco Malfoy's." He snickered.

"Don't let him hear you say that."

"Wasn't planning on it."

The game with Theodore seemed to have calmed her down enough, so since the game was over anyway, Daisy decided that some sleep was due. Wednesday meant Astronomy at midnight, after all. She needed to get at least _some _sleep. Theodore agreed with her, and soon she was back in her own dorm, taking off her jacket and crawling beneath the still warm blankets.

Magic was great.

~X~

It felt like she had just fallen asleep when she was woken up again by Leroy pawing her face. She sighed, rolling around and attempting to push him off her face. Her meek efforts didn't stop the cat.

"Aw come on, Leroy. Stopittt." She sleepily swatted his paws away, which only resulted in Leroy thinking that she wanted to play- so he bit her. "Tired. I wanna sleep."

It took some time and a couple of scratches, but Leroy eventually got the drift and got off her bed, leaving her to snooze on for a bit. It was only after about another five minutes or so that it occurred to Daisy that... the dorms were unusually quiet.

She opened her eyes, propping herself up on her arms so that she could take a look around. The dorm was empty.

Oh.

Turning her head to look at the clock, she also came to the realization that it was 9:12 AM.

_Oh._

_Damn._

Jumping out of bed, Daisy lost no time on her usual preparations. She changed into her robes, hastily putting on the tie as she searched the room for her satchel. She had at least been smart enough to put her books in there last night. She was still putting on her shoes as she ran out of the dorms and into the common room. That too, was empty.

Great.

"Wednesday." She muttered to herself. "Wednesday means transfiguration. Ground floor."

She sprinted out of the dungeons as fast as she could, running through the Gryffindor ghost by accident, who told her to watch where she was going before floating off.

She didn't pay it much attention.

To her luck and immense relief, Daisy did not run into Peeves.

By the time she reached Classroom 1B, where Transfiguration was taught, she was panting. She actually took a few seconds to catch her breath before knocking on the door and entering.

Being late for class was as awkward as one could imagine- everything went silent, and all eyes were drawn on her. Daisy swallowed, running her tongue over her lips as Professor McGonagall strode over to her.

"I'm sorry... I, uh, overslept." She murmured.

"Yes, I can see that. Five points from Slytherin, miss Dursley. Do not let it happen again."

"I won't."

"Good, take a seat and get to turning your match into a needle, please. We've still got approximately fifteen minutes of class left."

Daisy nodded, taking the walk of shame and walking over to one of the only empty seats. Luna Lovegood smiled at her as she sat down, she tried to do the same, but her face was too red with embarrassment and all she honestly wanted right now was for the Earth to open up and swallow her.

The next fifteen minutes went by uneventfully while Daisy tried and failed to turn her match into a needle. The only thing she managed to accomplish was make her match take the _shape _of a needle... even though it was definitely still a match.

McGonagall told them to turn their match into a needle by the next lesson, and then dismissed them.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" Daisy asked Mildred as soon as they left the classroom.

"It's not like I'm your house elf, is it? It's your responsibility to wake yourself up." She snootily replied and Daisy sighed in exasperation.

"... is this _still _about my study parties with Sylvia?"

Though her first impression of Mildred Peebles had been a pretty alright one, that impression of her was rapidly undergoing changes. Daisy didn't know what her deal was, but she only had that much patience.

Charms was spent in a similar fashion, but lunch seemed to at least cheer her up a bit as everyone got to talk about their flying experiences. Mildred spent the better part of lunch talking about how she always played quidditch with her brother back at home, and how she had come into a few close encounters with birds and trees while flying. Everyone seemed to have similar stories, and it did make Daisy somewhat nervous.

~X~

"How did it go then, your first flying lesson?" Theodore asked when she walked into the common room that night, carrying a little notebook and a pen. He was grinning, not in a bad way... but more in an amused sort of way. "I don't see any broken bones."

"Your faith in me is astounding, really." Daisy shot back, a grin of her own on her lips. "It... wasn't half bad actually. I mean, I didn't die."

"Are you up for another round of chess, or...?"

"I'm sorry," Daisy smiled apologetically, "I was actually planning to write my parents a letter." She held up her pen and notebook as indication- it was still blank right now- but she had lots to talk about.

"Oh, that's fine. Yeah."

"Maybe after I'm done. I won't stay up too late though, I was late for McGonagall's class today." Theodore raised his eyebrows.

"That's never good." Daisy nodded.

She sat down in the leather sofa while Theodore just played with his wand, twirling it around his fingers and talking about stuff. Nothing important, just things that kept the conversation going.

Daisy decided that she enjoyed Theodore's company. He was sarcastic, obviously not much of a social butterfly, but there was something about him that she liked. His wit, perhaps. To be honest, he was a bit of a mystery.

She finished writing her letter, her eyes quickly sweeping over it one last time to make sure it was fine.

_Dear mum and dad,_

_I'm sorry that it took me this long to write you a letter. Time just passed so quickly that I barely even realized it! I would've called, but believe it or not, there are no phones here._

_Anyway, I know that you don't like (I'm sorry for using this word) magic, so I'll try to talk about that as little as possible. I'm doing well._

_To mum: The food is good, I eat enough, and yes, I remembered to brush my teeth every night._

_To dad: I know you don't approve of this, but I'm happy I chose to go to school here._

_I've made some friends and school is going alright as well. Tell Dudley I said 'hi'. I love you all and miss you lots._

_Ps. You can probably send something back with the same owl I sent you this letter. Could you please include my alarm clock? Thanks._

_Love,_

_Daisy_

It would have to do. She tried not to mention magic or Hogwarts too much, and deliberately didn't include anything about Harry in her letter. Being their daughter, Daisy knew only too well how much her parents despised magic and everything that had anything to do with it. Last summer had been the proof of that.

The word "magic" had been banned from the house... and honestly, Daisy wasn't sure how she would deal with her family when she had to go back for vacation.

"How does that work?" Theodore interrupted her thoughts, picking up the pen she had put down while rereading her letter and drawing some random lines on an empty piece of parchment. He seemed confused. "There's no ink."

"Uh- the ink's already inside it and... you'll see if you unscrew it." Daisy folded her letter, taking a moment to put it inside an envelope and write down her parents' address on the backside.

"To send it - my letter, I mean - I can borrow one of the school owls, right...? I don't need my own?"

"Yeah, sure. There's a bunch at the owlery."

"Thanks."

It wasn't much longer after that, that Daisy decided to go to sleep. They exchanged "good night"s and Daisy went back to her dorm for the night.


	5. The Chamber of Secrets

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter**

* * *

A week after the first one, Daisy sent her parents another letter. This one was even shorter than the previous one (if that was even possible), because really, with all the magic censored out of her life, there wasn't exactly much to tell about it now that she lived at Hogwarts.

When she didn't immediately get an answer, Daisy didn't let her thoughts dwell on it too much- maybe they were busy, or maybe they didn't really know how owl post worked? She was patient and wrote some more letters, keeping everybody up to date with her life and performance at school.

As Halloween drew closer though, and Daisy still got no reply to her letters, she had to admit that... well, there really were no more excuses left for her to use in their defense. The facts all pointed towards one grim conclusion, and she didn't like it one bit. It looked like she was being ignored.

Judging by how well her dad had received the news of her being a witch, she wouldn't even be all that surprised if he threw her letters into the trashcan without reading them. It wasn't a nice feeling. The thought actually kind of made her want to lie on her bed in a fetus position and cry.

But she wouldn't do that- babies cried. _Dudley _pretended to cry when he wanted something he couldn't get. She didn't. Daisy hadn't cried since she was six or seven, and she wouldn't start again now. Instead, Daisy Dursley spent her twelfth birthday studying transfiguration with Sylvia Melville.

It wasn't all that bad, she reasoned. After all, she still had to find out how to turn her stupid needle back into a match, and that Sunday afternoon was a perfect opportunity to practice doing exactly that. She had, with much trouble and frustration, managed to get to stage one- which was transforming the match into a needle... now she just needed to reverse it. All she had managed to do so far was turn the needle back to its original colour though, not the right shape or material.

"Well... you could always try starting with something that looks more similar to a needle than a match does, I guess?" Sylvia suggested, tapping her wand against the table in some kind of a rhythm Daisy didn't recognize. A song, probably. "Like a toothpick, or something?"

"And where would we find a toothpick?" Daisy tiredly sighed, to which Sylvia simply rolled her eyes.

"Right here of course." She grabbed the matchbox and shook it. The matches inside rattled a bit and Daisy raised an eyebrow. Sylvia then proceeded to take one out and place it down on the table before grabbing her wand and concentrating on it. The incantation left her mouth and sure enough, the match turned into a toothpick.

Daisy groaned, banging her head against the table.

"How do you _do _that?!"

"It's not that difficult, it just requires concentration. And besides, that was easier than turning a match into a needle- both were made of wood, see?"

The blonde let out a long, suffering sigh before grabbing her own wand and focusing on the match-turned-toothpick in front of her.

"Don't think about _how_ it's done. Just kind of imagine the result in your head and focus on that."

In the end, Daisy did manage to turn her toothpick into a needle, and with some more patience on Sylvia's side, she also managed to transform her match into an at least _somewhat _acceptable needle.

It was a time-consuming task, but at the end of it all, Daisy felt accomplished. It was two hours well-spent.

"You're a life saver, thanks." She told Sylvia on their way to the Great Hall, where dinner would shortly be served. Her classmate simply shrugged.

"It's nothing. Slytherin needs all the help it can get if we want to win the House Cup."

"Yes. How about next time we tackle history of magic?"

"But that's so boring...!" Sylvia groaned. "How do you even manage to stay awake and listen to that?"

"I don't. Listen, I mean. History has always been a subject I've been good at though- it's interesting enough when taught the right way... unfortunately, Professor Binns tends to talk everybody to sleep."

"That he does."

They were two of the first students to get to the Great Hall for dinner. There were a couple of Hufflepuffs playing exploding snap, and two or three Ravenclaws sitting at their own table, discussing whatever it was they were talking about. The Slytherin table was practically empty save for two sixth or seventh-years. They were big and intimidating though, so neither Daisy nor Sylvia really felt like sitting close to them. Daisy wondered if she would one day be like that. Obviously, she would grow, but... 17... that was so, _old_. So mature. So far away. Practically an adult already.

She entertained the fantasy for a while.

Hanley joined them soon enough, and after another half an hour or so, Mildred strutted through the open doors with all the pride of a peacock. Flora and Hestia Carrow were right on her tail, speaking to each other in hushed tones- as they often did.

"_I _played exploding snap with Draco Malfoy today." Mildred smugly announced as she sat down. "What did you do?"

"We practiced transfiguration. Daisy can scrape a passable mark with her needle now, I think."

"I had a run-in with Peeves." Hanley gestured towards his robes, "these are new ones- couldn't get the others to turn back to their original color... or stop smelling so strongly of cooked cabbages."

"Yes, but _I _played exploding snap with _Draco Malfoy._"

"...alright?"

"Don't you think that's a _sign_?"

"No, not really." Hanley rolled his eyes at Sylvia, and behind her hand, Daisy was sure that the girl was trying hard not to laugh.

"Well, that's because you wouldn't know a sign even if it hit you in the face."

"I just think you're reading too much into his actions." Mildred glared at the sandy-haired boy and he held up his forearms in surrender. "Just my opinion, Peebles, no need to look at me like that."

Mildred huffed.

"Dursley!"

"Huh?"

"What do you think? He asked me to play exploding snap with him- that _obviously_ means _something_, right?"

"Actually, I think it was you who asked h-" Flora (or Hestia?) Carrow quickly shut up at the look Mildred shot at her.

"I don't know, sounds to me like he was just in need of a person to play exploding snap with..."

"Don't any of you get it?!" She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose in exasperation. It was all a bit dramatic, in Daisy's opinion. "It's obviously a sign that he _likes _me."

From the several doubtful looks she received upon saying that, Daisy knew that she wasn't the only one to severely doubt her words. In fact, Draco Malfoy and his gang seemed to have swapped places with some other Slytherins and were now sitting as far as possible from the first years while still remaining with the rest of their classmates.

This change in seating also resulted in something else, Daisy realized.

"Oh, hi. Hadn't noticed you."

"Hello." Theodore replied, any more conversation was postponed though, because at that exact moment all the food appeared. Everyone started filling their plates with what they wanted to eat, and soon, there were new conversations going on all around them.

"Our first quidditch match of the season is soon, it's us against Gryffindor." Spencer Whiddon was telling his friend enthusiastically as he tried to roll his spaghetti up around his fork.

"Yes, that should be a breeze. I mean, with the new brooms and all..."

"I heard Potter's a pretty good seeker though."

"You're not much with a good seeker if the rest of the team is crap."

Meanwhile, Mildred was still talking about her fated game of exploding snap with Draco Malfoy to anybody who would listen. Daisy tuned her out.

Hanley and his neighbour were discussing something much more interesting.

"It's almost Halloween! I really can't wait- they say the feast is great."

"Oooh, yeah! My sister told me that the feasts are really worth it..."

"Yeah, when they're not interrupted by rogue mountain trolls at least." The boy sitting opposite of Theodore interrupted the conversation, looking unimpressed. He had tanned skin, and dark hair- and looked kind of southern European, Daisy thought. Theodore snickered, and the girl sitting next to him shivered saying something that sounded like "oh, that was horrible".

"... what?"

"Oh, you know. Just last year." The boy shrugged. "Middle of the feast, everyone's eating, the usual, you know- and then our Defense Against The Dark Arts professor runs in- not the one we have now, he was this nervous wreck who kept stuttering, don't know where Dumbledore finds them. Well anyway, so he runs in and yells something about a troll being in the dungeons."

"... a troll?! Aren't they really stupid?"

"Yeah, how did it get in?"

"Does it really matter? All that matters is that it was _in the dungeons_. And they told us all to return to our _common rooms_!"

Daisy opened and closed her mouth a few times,

"But... our common rooms, they're-"

"Exactly!"

"But then... was it- did you see it, or-?"

"No," Theodore shrugged, joining the conversation, "Potter and his goons apparently didn't follow the instructions they were given -big surprise there- ended up in the toilets somehow, and- don't ask me how- managed to knock the thing out."

"They... what?"

"You heard me."

"But... how?!"

"Gryffindor stupidity? I don't know, I said don't ask me."

"Well, still- there's no need to worry. That sort of stuff doesn't just happen two years in a row."

"Right."

~X~

"Hey Theodore... can I ask you a question?" Daisy asked as they sat by the fire that night- they had switched chess for a few rounds of exploding snap, and so far Daisy wasn't actually losing. It was a nice change of pace.

"Shoot."

"Well, it's just that... have you ever done something, something that your family does not approve of and-" She paused for a moment, thinking of how to say it, "well, you're happy with your choice, and they're not, but you don't really want to be on bad terms with them either because- _they're your family_. But it's like, this choice of yours and your family, they can't coexist peacefully so... it's kind of like you need to make a choice? But it's already too late, because you've already made the choice? You know what I mean?"

Theodore just stared at Daisy for a while before shaking his head.

"Can't say I do... sorry."

"Oh... well, yeah, no, that's alright."

"I can tell you this though, if they really care about you, their first priority should be what makes you happy- not what they want you to be so _they _can be happy."

"It's just- it's bigger than that."

"Maybe. But does it have to be?"

Daisy sighed.

"I honestly don't know anymore."

Family wasn't a subject Theodore enjoyed discussing, so Daisy dropped it.

~X~

After getting nothing on her birthday, not even a card or a note, Daisy stopped writing to her parents.

If they didn't want to talk to her... then fine. Two could play the silent treatment game.

The week passed in a blur, and soon enough it was Friday evening- which of course meant the Halloween feast. Everybody was in such high spirits, that it was contagious. After taking a shower and getting back into a clean set of robes, the first-year Slytherins all met up in their common room and left for the feast together.

"Children! On your way to the feast, I see?" Professor Lockhart suddenly seemed to appear out of nowhere (in truth, he had just been behind the corner, hidden from view), a big bright smile on his face. He wore a colorful assortment of robes again. How he pulled it off, Daisy wasn't sure, because on anyone else, all those colours blended together would've made them look more like a clown than an actual human being.

"Uh... yes, we are." Had the boy not responded, Gilderoy Lockhart might've left them alone...

"Excellent, I'll join you." Which lead to five minutes of the man telling them stories about himself, and how he defended a helpless family of three from a vampire just by smiling at it. He then felt the need to remind them that he had won Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award no less than five times. He also asked them if they had read his autobiography yet, and how they liked it.

Nobody had read it, and as they told him so, Daisy had a sneaking suspicion that she knew what they'd be doing in their next Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson.

Luckily, they reached the Great Hall soon enough, and that was where they parted ways.

The Great Hall had been decorated for Halloween. There were jack-o-lanterns floating in the air, and what looked like (probably fake) bats were flying overhead. The room also seemed to have adopted an orange-and-black theme while they were gone. It was quite spectacular.

"Do you think he's actually done any of the stuff written in his books?" Daisy asked conversationally as they all took a seat at the Slytherin table. There were a few snickers and some of them even rolled their eyes.

"It's probably all really exaggerated."

"Or lies. You know, fiction that he presents as non-fiction."

"But there are witnesses! I read an interview in the prophet once, about this woman who said she had _seen_ him fight off a werewolf!"

"Oh please, Bletchley." Spencer Whiddon rolled his eyes. "Do you honestly think he doesn't have enough money to do something as simple as _bribe _a couple of people?"

"He wouldn't do that! And how do you know the stories aren't true, they might be!" Kevin Bletchley protested, true to his reputation as one of the die hard Gilderoy Lockhart fans of the school.

"Are you sure you don't have a crush on him?" Daisy teased the blonde boy and the rest of her classmates laughed along with her. Kevin just looked embarrassed and frustrated.

"No,but I'm just saying, don't the things he does sound just a bit... too much?"

"They sound completely made up."

"You don't know that!"

Much of the hour went by like that, and to be honest, it was a great atmosphere. Even Mildred was likeable enough, and they actually had a conversation about places they would like to visit given the chance. None of them really came out much wiser of that, but they did find out thirty useless facts about France, courtesy of Mildred.

"I wanted to go to Beauxbatons, but my mum thought it was too far away and wouldn't let me."

"Well, I can kind of see why... I mean, my parents thought _Scotland_ was far..." Sylvia shrugged.

"Why, where do you live?"

"Wales."

It wasn't much longer before the food disappeared again, and after a few more minutes of just sitting around and chatting, Professor Dumbledore got up to tell everybody to return to their common rooms.

Prefects, as usual, took the lead.

Hanley was halfway through telling them all a joke when they reached the corridor. Daisy didn't notice the prefect in front of her coming to a stop, and bumped into him. She stumbled for a few moments before managing to regain her balance... by then, all noise had died down.

She looked back in front of her, but there were too many older and taller people in front of her to be able to make out anything. Malfoy shoved her aside in his attempts to get to the front, and since he left a little path behind him, Daisy followed him.

It didn't take her long to find out what was wrong, or why people had suddenly stopped talking.

There, on the wall, written in what Daisy really hoped was red paint, two sentences were written:

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED.

ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.

And right under that... a cat hung, unmoving.

"Enemies of the heir, beware! You're next, mudbloods!" Malfoy gleefully shouted out, but nobody really paid any attention to him as the caretaker of the school, Argus Filch got to the scene and started pushing his way to the front of the crowd.

People made way for him, and Daisy wisely moved aside as well.

"What's going on here? What's going on?" He yelled, livid, only to come to a sudden stop when his eyes fell on the cat hanging from the wall. He gasped in horror, taking a step back and covering his face. "My cat! My cat! What happened to Mrs. Norris?!"

It was only as the man turned around, pointing his finger at Harry and screeching out "_you!" _that Daisy even noticed he was standing there at all. To nobody's surprise, his two friends were with him, and all three of them looked very pale and terrified as Filch got closer to them.

Before he could do anything to them other than shout out threats ("You've murdered my cat! You've killed her! I'll kill you! I'll-"), Dumbledore's voice rang out through the corridor. It effectively stopped Filch from carrying out his threats as he turned around to look at the headmaster of the school.

The rest of it was all a bit of a blur, Dumbledore got the cat and instructed Filch, Harry, Weasley and Granger to follow him to Lockhart's office, where they would discuss what had just happened. The professors that stayed behind ushered the rest of the students back to their dorms.

"Come on, people! Let's get back to the common room now." One of the Slytherin prefects shouted out, gathering up all of the younger Slytherins with the help of her partner. "Nothing to see here. It's past curfew for some of you already."

They followed their prefects back to the dungeons in an almost unnatural silence, but as soon as they reached the common room, that silence was gone and quickly replaced by everybody whispering and talking over one another in an attempt to be heard. It made it impossible to really make out more than a few sentences at a time, all belonging to different people who were having different conversations.

"What was that about?"

"Do you recon Mrs. Norris is... _dead_? She looked dead."

"The Heir of Slytherin and all that crap? Wasn't that a legend?"

"Watch it, Harrison! If the heir is here-"

"There's no way it's real. It's got to be a prank, right?"

"I heard that last time this happened, a mudblood was _killed_."

"What is the Chamber of Secrets?"

"Why is it that when something happens, Potter is _always_ conveniently just standing there?"

"Are we in danger?"

That last question sent a surge of panic through the whole common room, some fourth-year girls crying out dramatically and holding hands as they sat on the leather sofas, huddled close together.

"That cat was a warning- this '_heir' _what would he-"

"Okay now, CALM DOWN!" One of the Slytherin prefects shouted out, silencing them all by shooting green sparks into the air, which proceeded to make a loud noise. Once it was silent and all eyes were on her, she spoke again, loudly and clearly. "Nobody's in danger- I'm sure the professors are working on finding out what that was right now. For all we know, that was just a prank."

"And what if it wasn't?!" A third-year asked, clearly distressed. "Who is this heir? And what's the Chamber of Secrets? They _killed_ Mrs. Norris!"

"Relax, it's just a legend." The other prefect said, "no one's ever found evidence that such a thing as the Chamber of Secrets actually exists."

"That's not true!" Malfoy exclaimed, turning all eyes to him. "_My father _told me-"

"Malfoy, now is not the time."

"-that the Chamber was opened 50 years ago, and back then-"

"Malfoy!"

"-a mudblood was _killed_."

"Enough of this nonsense! Malfoy, _shut up_." Malfoy huffed distastefully, turning to look at the prefect, who was now holding her wand threateningly, not exactly pointing it at him... but it was close enough.

"What are _you _getting so worked up about? Do you have some muggle heritage you suddenly want to confess to, or something?"

"You know as well as I do that I am a pureblood. All I'm saying is that there's no need to get worked up over something that we know nothing about."

"How do you explain Mrs. Norris then?!"

"Yeah, Filtch's cat is dead!"

"Argus Filtch's cat is _not _dead." The cool voice halted all conversation inside the common room for a second time. Sometime during their fight, Professor Snape had returned. Everybody's attention was focused on him. "Like I was saying, Mrs. Norris has simply been petrified. Professor Sprout's mandrakes can fix that. As for the rest, there's nothing for any of you to worry about. Now go to your dorms."

Some tried to protest, but it was no real use. As their Head of House, Snape's instructions were to be followed... and not only that, but no one actually wanted to find out the consequences if they didn't.

Daisy followed the rest of the girls to their dorms, and it was only after they were in the pajamas and night dresses, each sitting on their individual bed that the conversation was brought back again.

"So what do you think?" Mildred asked, her voice quiet even though it technically didn't have to be. All of them were still wide awake.

"I don't know."

"What I don't get is... what is the Chamber of Secrets? And how is this _heir _related to it?" Sylvia spoke up, voicing the questions Daisy herself had been asking in her mind for a while now. By the way Flora and Hestia straightened up, their eyes trained on the rest of them, she thought it was safe to guess that the two of them hadn't been the only ones not to know.

"... seriously?" Mildred looked baffled. "Who _doesn't _know about the Chamber? My mother used to tell me the story before I went to bed...!"

"Um... it's the first time I've ever heard of it as well." At Daisy's words, Mildred turned to look at her, her mouth was actually agape now.

"Actually, I don't know about it either."

"Yeah, it sounds familiar... but I can't place it." Hearing the twins talking to anybody but each other for once was kind of weird... it was one of the few times Daisy had even witnessed it (all of the other times had been in class), since they were usually very quiet.

"Really? All of you? None of you have heard about the Chamber of Secrets before?"

"Apparently not."

"The Heir of Slytherin?"

"Doesn't ring a bell."

Mildred Peebles sighed.

"Fine, I guess I'll _have_ to tell you about it then. My mother always says it's a shame to be a Slytherin and not to know about something as important as the Chamber. It's a part of our House's history after all." Despite the sigh that escaped her lips, Mildred seemed to really be enjoying the undivided attention.

"Well, get to it then, _educate us_." Sylvia rolled her eyes, running her hand through Leroy's fur as she spoke. Daisy's cat was nothing if not a cuddly attention seeker, it had become common knowledge in their dorm.

"Alright so. You know how Hogwarts was founded by Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin, right? Well, each of them valued different traits, you see, and each of them taught students who valued those traits as well. The sorting today is still based on those traits, actually. Now the rest of them were fine with letting just anyone who showed signs of magic come to Hogwarts, but Slytherin, he had the right idea. He wanted to only allow purebloods and halfbloods into the school. The rest didn't agree though, and they supposedly got into a huge fight which ended with Slytherin leaving.

That's not it though, because, according to the legend- and it is here that the story actually begins- Slytherin built a secret room somewhere inside the castle. Nobody knows where, but it's said to be a place only Salazar Slytherin himself and his ancestors can access. It is also said that he hid a monster in it, one only he can control.

So, supposedly, when his descendants get back to Hogwarts, they can access this room- the Chamber of Secrets- and order the beast hiding within it to purge the school of all the ones unworthy of being here. Mudbloods, in other words."

There were a few moments of silence before-

"Your mum told you _that_ as a bedtime story?"

"Why, what's wrong with it?" Mildred demaned.

"Oh, nothing... just the part about a monster _killing_ kids."

"Is it true though?" Daisy intervened before a fight could break out. Thankfully, it seemed to work, for Mildred shrugged.

"I don't know, I hope so. It's about time that they pulled out all the weeds, if you know what I mean."

Daisy _did _know what she meant, and it didn't feel nice at all. Especially since she had come to realize that she herself was one of those 'weeds' Mildred was referring to- even if she didn't know it.

It made her feel kind of sick in the pit of her stomach.

"Well, either way we've got nothing to fear. Even if it is real, there are no mudbloods in Slytherin."

"... could you stop using that word?" Sylvia was frowning.

"What?"

"You know which one. It's terribly crude language."

"It's what they are, isn't it?" She rolled her eyes, "oh fine, _muggleborns_, are you happy now?"

Sleep didn't come easy that night, but Daisy still stayed in her bed. She didn't go up to the common room, where she was nearly certain Theodore would be, sitting by the fire and playing chess or reading a book. She kept her eyes closed and hugged her pillow as she tried to keep the unpleasant thoughts out of her mind.

In the end, she dreamt of giant spiders and a being that looked suspiciously alike to Nosferatu the vampire, all closing in on her and chanting over and over again "mudblood, mublood, mudblood."


	6. Friends

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, if I did I wouldn't be writing fanfiction about it.**

* * *

Daisy apparently looked so terrible that Monday morning that the moment McGonagall saw her rounding the corner on her way to Defense Against the Dark Arts, the woman pulled her aside to ask her if she was feeling well and sent her straight to the infirmary.

Madam Pomfrey fussed over her for another good ten minutes before deciding that she needed to sleep- and that she needed to do so right then and there. She fixed her a potion of dreamless sleep (that's what she called it, at least), and informed her that she would be sending an owl to her professors to inform them of her whereabouts.

Daisy appreciated the gesture... but she didn't really want to sleep- when she tried to tell Madam Pomfrey this, she only received a doubtful look in response. Daisy didn't think much of the glass that was given to her some time later, and drank its contents easily.

It turned out that that was the potion, and that sleeping potions apparently worked much more quickly than sleeping pills ever could.

When Daisy opened her eyes again, it was dark. The curtains were drawn open, and yet only a small amount of light was let in- only a small part of the moon was visible tonight. She didn't know how late it was, but judging by the absence of light and the way her stomach growled, she thought it was safe to assume that she had missed dinner.

Had she really been out for an entire day...?

"Oh, finally-" Madam Pomfrey walked into the room just then, "I was starting to wonder if I was going to have to spend the night here. Are you feeling better, dear?"

"Um... yes, actually. Lots." Daisy realized that it was the truth- she was feeling better than she had in days, which was phenomenal, with how she'd been dragging herself around, looking and feeling not unlike a zombie.

"See? I knew it,_ I knew it_. Stress is what it was." With a flick of her wand, a sandwich appeared on the table next to Daisy's bed. It was simple, but from where the Slytherin sat, it looked mouthwatering. "Eat that, and then you can get back to your dorm."

Daisy lost no time following Madam Pomfrey's instructions, devouring the sandwich and then eating a second one as well. She drank some of the water that was offered to her, and after what couldn't possibly have been more than a couple of minutes, the plate was devoid of even the breadcrumbs.

Madam Pomfrey nodded approvingly.

"Thank you."

"It's nothing. Now, it's a bit late so I'll escort you back to your common room, and what I want you to do once we're there, is head _straight to bed_. I don't care if you just slept the day away, or if you don't feel tired, your body needs it. Am I understood?"

Daisy nodded.

"Yes, Madam Pomfrey."

"Good." Daisy got up from the hospital bed, taking a moment to grab her satchel from where it lay on the ground, before following the school nurse out of the hospital wing. The walk back to the Slytherin dungeons wasn't a long one, but they still managed to run into a prefect (another Weasley, _just how many of them were there?_) and Argus Filch himself, neither of whom were happy to see her, but calmed down at Madam Pomfrey's explanation. Daisy decided she was happy that she hadn't been forced to make this trek alone.

"I believe this is it?" The witch questioned as they reached the dungeons, the common room entrance was just across from there.

"Yes, thank you."

"It's my job." She waved it off, then reached into her pockets and pulled out a vial with a light-coloured liquid inside of it. She passed it to Daisy. "This is a dose of dreamless sleep. I don't suggest using it tonight, but keep it with you, should you need it."

Daisy thanked her, again, and made her way towards the Slytherin common room. "Parseltongue" was the password, and as she stepped inside, she realized that only a couple of older students were still there, hanging around the fire and doing homework or whatever. The Slytherin prefect was there as well, but she was too busy snogging her boyfriend (apparently) to notice anything else going on. Daisy quickly moved on, and other than looking up to see who it was, nobody really paid her any attention.

She fled to her dorm.

~X~

The only thing people seemed to talk about these days, was the Chamber of Secrets. Not that that was really a big surprise or anything, considering the events that had transpired just recently. The writing on the wall was still fresh in everybody's memory, and there were several rumours going around about it. Every rumour was more ridiculous than the previous one... and the proverbial cake of course, in Daisy's humble opinion, went to the one which involved _Harry_ being the Heir of Slytherin.

It was easy enough to kind of laugh it off when such were the things whispered in every hallway. Even if the Chamber was a real thing, Daisy severely doubted that Harry, her cousin, would be the one to open it. They were just that, silly rumours based on nothing.

She had to admit that she really wished they'd talk about something else for a change though. Ridiculous rumours notwithstanding, some of the talk that went around in the Slytherin common room when nobody was listening, scared her. She wasn't sure how she felt about everything being said, especially with her being a muggleborn herself. It was no secret that many Slytherins weren't fans of muggleborns, and this had only become more evident over the last few weeks.

Mildred Peebles had made a show out of calling out a 'mudblood' in a random hallway just some days ago, and many of her friends had laughed while she mocked the girl in her face. The young Ravenclaw had seemed near to tears, and Daisy hadn't been able to swallow the feeling of dread in her stomach. Draco Malfoy, of course, took hating muggleborns to a whole new level entirely. He had openly wished death upon them many more times than Daisy could count. He looked positively gleeful at the very thought.

Her only consolation was that, somehow, nobody was aware that she was a muggleborn too. Whatever she had done during those first few days at Hogwarts, seemed to have at least given others the impression that she was of 'better blood'. Harry keeping his mouth shut had also helped, of course. Had he wanted to, she knew he could make her regret everything that had ever happened at Privet Drive. She didn't particularly like people having such a leverage over her... especially when said people didn't particularly like her. Keeping things the way they currently were was probably in her best interest .

Daisy told herself there was no use worrying over it- it could be a prank, for all she knew. It had been weeks, if there was an Heir, he was taking his sweet time cleansing the school. In fact, she should be happy it had given her this new insight on Slytherin- now she could prepare for it. What she had to concentrate on, was making sure nobody found out that she was a muggleborn. Yes. That was a good course of action. There was no point in getting so stressed- undoubtedly, Madam Pomfrey wouldn't be happy if she got herself landed in the hospital wing again.

It was on a Thursday night after Astronomy, that Daisy slipped out of her dormitory for another one of her late-night chess games with Theodore. She put her books away and made up some excuse to leave while the others were fighting over who would take a shower and who would go to sleep.

Theodore, unsurprisingly, was already sitting by the fire when she approached him. He looked up and nodded his head in a sort of greeting. Daisy returned it.

"Dursley." He spoke.

"Hi. Been a while." She allowed herself to sit down, kicking off her shoes and warming her toes by the fire. Being a student at Hogwarts sure involved a lot of walking from one location to another... Her brown eyes eventually wandered to the chessboard, Theodore had apparently been in the middle of a game. Black seemed to be winning. "Can I play?"

"Sure."

The chess pieces grumbled about having to move back to their original positions, but didn't put up a fight (was that even a thing they could do?). Finally, they were all set to go. Daisy had to make the first move, so she moved a pawn.

"So... what brings you here tonight?" Theodore questioned as he regarded his chess pieces. He moved a pawn of his own as Daisy raised an amused eyebrow.

"Do I have to have a reason to come up here and play chess?"

"I suppose not."

The first round of chess was won by (no surprise there) Theodore. Again. _One day_, she would be the one saying checkmate. One day. Today, apparently, was not that day.

"How can you be this good at this game?" She whined childishly, letting herself sink lower in her armchair as a dramatic sigh escaped her lips. The boy sitting opposite of her just chuckled.

"Practice makes perfect?"

"Then what, have you been playing this since infancy? Is this game what you had instead of toy cars and lego blocks?"

"I haven't been playing it quite that long, no." His lips formed a smirk as he huffed in amusement. "How about we play another game? One that you actually stand a chance of beating me in?"

"No. I can do this." Daisy stubbornly insisted, straightening herself and fixing the chessboard a glare.

"You know, just a piece of advice, Dursley. Glaring at the chess pieces isn't going to make them like you more."

_Now she had to win them over too?! _Was this a game of chess or world politics? She was starting to think this game was preparing her to negotiate with the prime minister of North Korea or something.

"Yeah, yeah, you laugh at me now, but mark my words: one day I will beat you at this game."

"You can certainly try."

Daisy re-positioned herself so that she was sitting on her legs, and thus standing taller. She observed the chessboard and for a while they played in relative silence. Theodore occasionally speaking up to warn her about things or tell her that the move she had just made was stupid. He wasn't a bad teacher, Daisy thought... he just didn't go easy on people. She didn't really mind, it was a challenge. Challenges were interesting.

She was, however, considering asking him if he didn't want to play some exploding snap or something instead, because she wasn't too sure how many losses in a day her pride could handle. He spoke up before she could do so though.

"So... if you don't mind my asking," Daisy moved her queen out of harm's way, and then looked up as he went on, "you're a muggleborn, aren't you?"

The question had been asked conversationally- as if they were discussing something mundane, like the weather. Yet she knew it was _so much_ more.

She felt as if a bucket of icy water had been dumped on her head, and for a few moments time just seemed to stop entirely. _He knew_. But... how? Where had she gone wrong? What had given her away? Millions of questions floated through her mind. She opened her mouth, then closed it again, a string of unintelligible words and stutters leaving her mouth as she tried to deny it. Not that he bought it for even a second. He was intelligent, that much she had figured out early on.

"Thought so." Theodore nodded to himself, instructing one of his pieces to take her bishop. "It was kind of obvious."

"I- but- you- _how_?"

"I observe, besides, sorry to say, but you've been a wreck these past few days. I just put two and two together."

"...oh."

She had been sure she had done at least a decent job at looking like she was okay- apparently, she had been wrong. How many more had noticed? Her emotions must have clearly shown on her face, for the older Slytherin rolled his eyes. He looked more exasperated than amused- he didn't look disgusted though... so that was an upside to the situation.

"Don't look at me like that. Merlin, you'd think I'm the Heir of Slytherin or something." Then as an afterthought he added, "Just to clarify, _I'm not_."

Daisy closed her mouth, then opened it again.

"So, um, do you think that muggleborns are- I mean- do you hate them?" _Do you hate me?_

"Truthfully?" Theodore shrugged, "I don't really care."

"You... don't care?" What was that supposed to mean?

"Exactly. I don't really see a reason to. I mean, they don't bother me, but that's about it. I never really talked to one... except for you, anyway." Daisy wasn't sure what she thought about that. "Most people say that there are no muggleborns in Slytherin, I always reckoned that- well, there had to be. Not only wizards are cunning and ambitious, right?"

So... he didn't hate muggleborns. He was... more or less indifferent towards them. Okay, yeah, she could work with that.

"What about you? Are you-?"

"I'm a pureblood- anything less and my father would probably have disowned me upon my birth. Or before that even. He's... never really been a fan of muggles. Or anything at all, really."

"Oh, I see. That sounds tough."

"I'm used to it." He simply said. Daisy could plainly see that the subject of Theodore's father was not something he really wanted to talk about, so she quickly turned the conversation back to what she wanted to know.

"So... you're okay with this? Me... being a muggleborn?" He shrugged.

"I won't rat you out, if that's what you're worried about."

"Alright, cool." That was good news. She decided to push it just a little bit further, this was information that she needed, after all- and he might know more on the subject than she did. "Are there are others? Who noticed, I mean?"

"I don't know. If they have, they're keeping quiet. I think you're safe though- as I said, most people believe muggleborns can't get into Slytherin so they'll automatically assume you're a half-blood."

Daisy nodded, it sounded logical enough. And Theodore's words did bring back a memory of the day of her sorting- hadn't Draco Malfoy assumed she was a half-blood right away when she introduced herself? Unknowingly, she had saved herself a lot of trouble by agreeing with him back then.

"Good. That's good." She nodded to herself a few times. Then, looking back up at her fellow Slytherin, she asked one last question. "So... are we still friends?"

"Friends?" Theodore looked like he had never even considered the possibility before.

"Well, yeah? I assumed that's what you'd... all this..." She gestured towards the game of chess, though by that she meant all of the games of chess they had ever played together. Theodore looked skeptical, and for a few moments Daisy allowed herself to worry about whether or not he was going to turn her down. Finally, Theodore shrugged.

"Alright, sure. We're friends."

~X~

The trick to being a Slytherin, was strutting around like you owned the place. Theodore told her that, and so far, his piece of advice had not yet been proven wrong. Ever since starting to do it, in fact, she had noticed she was far from the only one.

She supposed it was mostly expected of her House, to act like proud snobs, so why not live up to the reputation if it made their lives easier anyway? As she always said, it was better to live on top of the world than under it. Slytherin wasn't a very popular House, at least not when it came to the other three Houses... they had to do _something _about that.

The loud banging caught Daisy's attention as she was walking back to the Slytherin Dungeons after her last class of the day, Defense Against the Dark Arts. It was loud and insistent, and not to mention, more than a bit annoying. It only grew louder with time, which meant she was getting nearer. She wouldn't have considered checking it out if it hadn't been on her way to the Slytherin common room. She had already lost ten minutes thanks to Lockhart after all, who kept her back after class to congratulate her on acing his test (which she had accomplished by cheating, not that he needed to know that). What was a few minutes more?

Turned out that the banging was coming from the inside of a broom cupboard, and upon closer inspection, Daisy realized it had been locked.

"Get me out of here! Somebody!"

Oh... okay then. That answered a couple of questions.

"Er, it's okay! I can try to get you out..."

"Oh, thank Merlin, I didn't think anyone would stop...!"

Daisy drew her wand and cleared her throat. She had this. Okay. Alright. She could do this. She'd practiced it in class. Pointing her wand at the door, she followed the instructions Professor Flitwick had been going on about all day.

"Alohamora." She said, and to her utter delight and pride, the door flung open. _Ohhh yes_. Not bad.

The boy that stumbled out was a Hufflepuff. He was taller than Daisy, and really skinny too.

"About bloody time somebody g-" He halted, and for the thousandth time since getting to Hogwarts, Daisy could see the eyes moving to her tie as the gears in his mind started working. Awesome.

"A thank you wouldn't have killed you, you know!" Daisy shouted out after him, rolling her eyes in exasperation.

She should've left him in that broom cupboard after all.

What was up with him? Even if they weren't that well-liked, most students still practiced elementary politeness when talking to Slytherins... especially after having been rescued from a dark, murky cupboard.

"Sounds like Smith, if you ask me." Blaise Zabini said over dinner as she retold the story of her run-in with the Hufflepuff some hours later. In all honesty, Daisy had been speaking to _Theodore_, but Zabini didn't really seem to have any qualms about jumping into conversations he wasn't a part of.

"Yeah, don't let it get to you. Half the school doesn't like him."

"Can't imagine why..." Daisy rolled her eyes. Zabini took another bite of his chicken before turning to her.

"Why bother helping them out in the first place? It's not as if they'd do the same for one of us..."

Before she could reply, Theodore was already doing so for her.

"Just being a good, nice Samaritan, I suppose. Really, Durlsey, how didn't you end up in Hufflepuff? Are you going to start giving out flower crowns next?" He was smirking at her, and Daisy leveled him with a glare.

"I might not know any hexes, but I bet I could still cause some semi-permanent damage with this." She held her wand up threateningly, and Theodore held his hands up in mock surrender.

Satisfied, Daisy returned her attention to her food. On her other side, her classmates were excitedly discussing tomorrow's quidditch match, the first of the season, as Whiddon had said- multiple times.

From what she had heard, quidditch was a game- some sort of a sport, like football. Only that it was vastly different and apparently played on broomsticks. Other than that, Daisy didn't know much about it. Everybody else seemed to though, and it appeared to be one of their favourite topics of discussion. She had already agreed to go to tomorrow's quidditch match with Mildred and the twins- if only to support the team. She had been told that it was her duty as a Slytherin. Either that or her classmates were blowing things out of proportion, she wasn't sure which one it was.

Another thing she had heard whispers about, was Harry Potter being on the opposing team. Which had been weird to find out, because Harry simply didn't _do _sports. Not as far as she knew. But evidently at Hogwarts he did, and he was also, reportedly, one of the best. He was a seeker- though what he was supposed to seek, Daisy had no idea.

Maybe she could ask Theodore about it, as soon as they got a few moments on their own. The boy had unofficially become her informant and adviser since that night in the common room, and it was rather comforting to have somebody to go to with all of her questions. He usually knew an answer to them.

She left the Great Hall with Mildred and the twins, only to be stopped when Harry and his friends cornered them right outside the dungeons. Their being there caused a number of eyebrows to be raised at them.

"Can we help you?" Flora Carrow asked suspiciously, raising a delicate eyebrow. All three of the Slytherins huddled together, as if ready to fight if need be. Never mind the fact that they didn't know enough magic to actually cause any damage.

"Er- we just wanted to talk to Dai- Dursley for a moment." The three girls turned to look at her, and Daisy shrugged as if to say 'I don't know what's going on here either'.

"Well, move along then!" Weasley added, rather rudely. "This doesn't concern you." The Slytherins looked doubtful.

"Uh... you can go." Daisy spoke up, not really sure if she was making the right choice. "The Bloody Baron's right there, I don't think they're stupid enough to try anything."

They hesitated for a few moments, but in the end, the three of them left. The moment the were no longer within earshot, Harry opened his mouth to talk.

"So, I wanted to ask-"

"_Not here_!" Daisy hissed, throwing a frantic look around. Luckily nobody else was there. "Everyone can see and _hear_ us."

They moved to a more quiet area, behind some plants and a statue, where they were at least mostly hidden from plain sight. Daisy sighed.

"Spill. What do you want?"

"Well, we were just wondering-" Harry started, only to be interrupted by his friend, Granger.

"Are you on good terms with Draco Malfoy?"

Daisy raised an eyebrow at the randomness of the question. Only that it probably wasn't random. It was probably very relevant to whatever request they had to ask of her.

"Not particularly, no. I've never spoken to him." Their faces fell.

"Oh... well, could you get close to him, then?"

"What do you want from him?"

"We want to know what he knows about the Chamber of Secrets." Daisy opened her mouth, then closed it again, taking a moment to respond.

"Not much more than the rest of us, I expect."

"Well couldn't you get close to him and ask anyway?"

"I don't know him. We don't talk."

"But... you're a Slytherin...!" Weasley exclaimed, as if that was the answer to all of their questions. Daisy raised an eyebrow. "Surely you can... _find some way_ to-"

She wasn't particularly liking where Weasley was going with this. She rolled her eyes.

"Oh, of course, my bad. See, I left my intimidation hair gel back in the common room this morning, just let me fetch it and I'll be right back at you with a list of ways to illegally extract information out of people!"

The three Gryffindors just kind of gaped at her outburst, Weasley being the first one to speak up.

"Intimidation hair gel...?" He asked.

"That was _sarcasm_."

"I know that! It's just... a weird thing to say."

Daisy sighed, she just wanted to get back to her dorm and sleep until next morning. Was that too much to ask for? She turned to look at Weasley as she spoke, articulating so that she was sure to be understood.

"Look, I can't just walk over to Malfoy and ask about that. That's it. It's final. You should ask a friend of his. I'm sure the two that always follow him around would know, and they don't seem to be too hard to trick either." She tried to look over their shoulders, nobody was there, just a couple of ghosts. "Can I go?"

"Uh, yeah, sure." She might or might not have heard Weasley mutter something that vaguely sounded like 'thanks for nothing' before heading off in the direction of the Slytherin dungeons.

~X~

The morning of her first ever quidditch match, wasn't a very nice one. The sky was covered in grey clouds, and there was a hint of thunder in the distance. As she followed Mildred and the Carrows to the quidditch pitch, she asked herself why exactly she hadn't packed an umbrella when she left home.

That had been a stupid decision.

Still, the grim weather didn't seem to affect the students' enthusiasm for the upcoming game, and everyone seemed to be in high spirits.

"There's no way Gryffindor can beat us," Mildred was saying as they looked for some good seats to watch the game from, "I mean, all of _our _players have got the new nimbus 2001. All Gryffindor has is a nimbus 2000 and some ancient models. We'll be out of here in 10 minutes."

"Isn't Potter supposedly really good?" Hestia questioned, and her twin nodded.

"Yes, and the snitch _is_ worth 150 points so..."

"Are you implying that Potter is a _better seeker_ than Draco?" Mildred looked personally offended on Malfoy's behalf.

"Well, no but-"

"Then stop sounding like you are."

The girl looked like she wanted to say more, but decided to keep quiet instead. It wasn't much longer until the game began, and it soon became very obvious which House Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were rooting for. A little hint: it wasn't Slytherin.

All of the players gathered around in a circle, Madam Hooch standing in the middle of it all. The two quidditch captains shook hands, and the game began.

It was confusing, was all Daisy could think of.

Obviously, the ball called the 'quaffle', had to be thrown through one of the opposite team's hoops. There was some sort of a goalie flying in front of the hoops, defending them. That part Daisy got- what she _didn't _get, was what exactly was up with the two black balls flying around. They looked pretty dangerous. There should also be a third ball called the 'snitch', but Daisy couldn't see it anywhere.

It was still quite thrilling however, even if she didn't really get the point of the whole game. It was only after the same black ball of murder had targeted the same person several times in a row, that Daisy doubtfully asked-

"Is that supposed to happen?" It was not, one of the Carrow twins informed her.

The fact that it had started to rain, didn't really make it any easier to follow the game. From the boy's commentary (he had introduced himself as Lee Jordan before the game began), Daisy realized that it wasn't just any player that was being targeted by that ball- it was Harry!

Daisy borrowed another student's binoculars, trying to get a better look of what was going on, but the moment she actually found Harry and focused on him, was the exact moment when that ball finally got him. Daisy dropped the binoculars in shock. The student she had gotten them from yelled at her not to break them and she muttered an apology.

She picked them up again and next thing she knew, Harry was falling. Daisy closed her eyes before he hit the ground. When she opened them again, there were too many Gryffindors surrounding Harry to actually see him.

"Is he dead? Did he die?!" She asked,voice rising as she shook the person next to her, who happened to be Mildred.

"Wha- I don't know...! Stop that!"

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Daisy registered Lee Jordan shouting out that "POTTER CAUGHT THE SNITCH! GRYFFINDOR WINS!", but she really couldn't care less about that.

"Stop freaking out, for Merlin's sake. See? He's sitting up... Is that Lockhart?"

Daisy quickly made use of the binoculars again, watching as Lockhart talked to Harry and the latter protested, she couldn't really make sure from that particular angle- but his arm seemed broken. Lockhart pulled out his wand... and then Harry's arm wasn't broken anymore. It wasn't healed either. It just... kind of moved like jelly when shaken.

"Oh... gross." She put the binoculars down again.

"Well, that was disappointing." Mildred sighed. "I was so sure we were going to win this game... I guess there's always Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. We can beat those."

Daisy nodded, but in all honesty, quidditch was the least of her worries.


	7. Parseltongue

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.**

* * *

The next morning, Daisy woke up before any of her classmates did.

It was an unusual occurrence to say the least- pretty much unheard of, if one wanted to be frank- but altogether not unwelcome. If anything, it actually made her plans for that day somewhat easier to go through with.

After the first five minutes of the day were spent just waking up, Daisy pushed herself out of bed and sleepily changed into her school robes. She took her time making sure there were no ink flecks on her robes, and that her tie had been put on correctly (something she _still _had trouble with sometimes), then delayed her departure a couple more minutes due to having to put her socks back on- not inside out this time.

The morning air was cool, but not biting, and as Daisy stepped out into the Slytherin dungeons a few minutes later, she felt somewhat more awake.

It was still early in the morning, and it being a Sunday, there really weren't many people around to watch her make her way through the seemingly deserted corridors. It was quiet, and other than the occasional ghost sliding down the hallway, the common areas of the castle were empty. This was a good thing, in Daisy's opinion. The less people that saw her, the better.

Taking the stairs she knew would lead her to the first floor, Daisy let her memory guide her to the school's hospital wing. It hadn't been too long since she'd been there herself after all, and in no time at all, she was there already.

After yesterday's quidditch match, Daisy had gone to bed early. The image of her cousin falling off his broomstick had bugged her for hours on end as she lay awake though, and in the end she had promised herself to go check on him first thing in the morning. He should be alright, the logical part of her brain told her- Madam Pomfrey was a talented witch and woman.

The other part of her brain, her Dursley part of the brain, wondered why she should even care, but she had ignored that pretty quickly as well.

She knocked on the door twice, standing there awkwardly for a while, unsure if she was free to push it open and go inside, or if she was supposed to wait until somebody let her in. Luckily, Madam Pomfrey was with her in only a couple of moments, poking her head through the door and asking her what she wanted.

"Hello, I was, uh, just wondering if I could visit somebody? Harry Potter? He should be here." The witch regarded her skeptically, pursing her lips for a few moments, but finally nodded.

"Oh, very well. I suppose some company wouldn't harm him." She stepped aside as she spoke, holding the door open for Daisy and letting her enter the large room.

The Hogwarts hospital wing looked nothing like any hospital Daisy had ever visited (not that she had been in many hospitals of course- just the one where they had gone to get Dudley's tail surgically removed). There were no beeping machines, and no strong smell of antiseptic lingering everywhere. Instead, there were marble floors and big windows with heavy curtains and lots of beds. It looked kind of like what she would've imagined a medieval or really really old hospital to look like.

Their cures, however, were much more effective and painless than those commonly used in the middle ages. Thank god for that.

The hospital wing hadn't changed much since the last time Daisy had been there- in fact, the only obvious difference there was, was that there were people lying in the beds now. Only two of them were occupied, but she recognized both of the people on them without any real effort.

As her eyes fell on the blonde boy laying on the bed closest to her, Daisy sucked in a deep breath. Her eyes took in the sight before her, and she forced herself to remain calm.

He was laying awkwardly on the pristine white bed, looking very out of place with his hands held up as if there had been something in them. His eyes were wide open, but unseeing. He looked... _petrified_. The Slytherin easily recognized the boy, it was Colin Creevey, the same boy she had sat with on the Hogwarts Express some months ago.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that whatever had happened to Filch's cat, had probably happened to Creevey as well.

"Miss Dursley." Madam Pomfrey's voice snapped her out of her thoughts, "Mr. Potter is this way."

"Oh, right, of course." Daisy quickly followed the witch, but she wasn't able to resist the urge to look back at Colin Creevey a few times. He was a muggleborn, she could remember him saying that much on their first train ride to Hogwarts.

She could think about that later though, she told herself. Harry was the reason she was there now.

"Mr. Potter, you have a visitor." Madam Pomfrey announced.

Harry looked up from the sandwich he had been eating, and his eyes widened just a bit, eyebrows shooting up. Obviously, he hadn't been expecting to see her there.

"I'll allow you to stay here until you've eaten. After that I want both of you out of here, is that clear?"

Both of them replied with "yes, Madam Pomfrey" and, satisfied, the witch nodded and turned around to leave them alone. Behind them, Daisy could hear the older witch putting up some curtains around Colin Creevey's bed.

"Hi Harry." The Slytherin spoke up, shifting her weight from her one leg to the other.

"Hi Daisy."

"How's your arm...?" Well, Daisy thought, it certainly _looked_ a lot better than it had yesterday, "I see that your bones are back."

"Yeah, Madam Pomfrey's the best... Friendly piece of advice though, never become boneless. Growing them back hurts. And Skele-Gro tastes terrible."

Daisy chuckled a little, and Harry grinned a bit.

"I'll keep that in mind, thanks. Congratulations on winning that game yesterday by the way- didn't know you had it in you."

"Oh, um, thanks- I guess." He took another bite of his sandwich, probably to avoid having to sit in an awkward silence. "So... how are you liking Hogwarts?"

He seemed unsure as he asked the question, like he was treading on thin ice, and really, had they been at home, he would indeed have been broaching a dangerous subject. As it was though, Daisy just shrugged, a little smile appearing on her lips before she answered the question.

"I like it. It's very... well, _magical_."

"That's kind of the point, isn't it? Since it's a magic school." Daisy chuckled along, and then they fell quiet. Truth be told, there wasn't really a lot to say between the two of them. They weren't suddenly friends because both of them went to the same magic school. She was still Daisy Dursley, the girl who had told on him numerous times throughout their childhood, and he was still Harry Potter... the boy who had to put up with the consequences.

But, Harry didn't seem to hate her. And the way things seemed to be going lately, he might as well be her only relative not to hate her...

"Do you mind if I ask about, uh," She cleared her throat, "Colin Creevey?" She nodded in the boy's general direction and Harry frowned.

"Oh, he was... Dumbledore and McGonagall brought him in last night." Harry put his now empty plate aside. "They found him like that. Petrified. He was apparently sneaking around after hours..."

Daisy had thought that much, confirmation didn't really make her feel much better though. She would've actually preferred it if she had been wrong in her assumptions.

"Right. I think I'll get to the Great Hall now, the rest should be up already- don't want them to eat all the pancakes."

"Alright, well... bye." Daisy waved her cousin goodbye and made to leave, only for Harry's shout to stop her- "Daisy, wait! Are you staying at Hogwarts for Christmas?"

"Um, I expect so... why?"

"Nothing, just... I might need you to do me a favour at somewhere around Christmas time. I'll owe you one."

"Oh..." Daisy lamely said. Well, having the great Harry Potter 'owe you one' wouldn't be too bad, she supposed. "Alright. Well, it depends on what it is- but sure." With that, she was gone.

When she got to the Great Hall, all of her classmates were already there. Her visit to the hospital wing had taken longer than she had initially expected it to, but to her great relief not all pancakes had been eaten quite yet. That would've been a pity.

She seated herself next to Mildred, who instead of replying to her rather polite "good morning", sent Daisy an annoyed glare.

"Where were you?" Her fellow Slytherin demanded, biting her lip in frustration as she watched Daisy help herself to some pancakes. "I woke up and you just weren't there...! Do you know how awkward it was for me to walk from the common room to here all by myself?! Everybody saw!"

"I'm sorry, I went to the infirmary- wasn't feeling well." Mildred pursed her lips, she didn't too look satisfied with Daisy's explanation. "Why didn't you go with the Carrows? I'm sure they wouldn't have minded escorting you."

"It's not the same! Are you just kidding, or do you really just not get it?"

"I don't know. What is it that I should be getting?" Mildred gave her an 'are you kidding me' kind of look, but Daisy just responded by shrugging. Whether the other believed it or not, Daisy was genuinely puzzled by her behavior... Mildred was just so... easily offended. By stuff that shouldn't even offend her in the first place.

"A lesson in primary pureblood etiquette, for one." Mildred huffed as she crossed her arms over her chest, obviously miffed. "Mother always told me today's generation just isn't what it used to be- I think I get it now, this would've _never_ happened ten or twenty years ago. And in Slytherin House...! Merlin!"

"I still don't get what the big deal is. I didn't walk with you to breakfast, so what?"

"It's not about you not walking with me to breakfast- it's about the _image_ it projects." She talked slowly, as if talking to a child. As she continued though, slowly, her voice became louder. "You chose to become _my _friend at the beginning of the year- that means that whatever you do, reflects back on me. You're always running around with Melville and, and, that Nott guy- though he's technically kind of alright- and then Potter suddenly wanted to talk to you?! Think about what other people must think! _You're making me look bad!_"

Daisy had _not_ been expecting that. She wasn't even sure what she had been expecting, but that wasn't it. The way Mildred spoke about it, it sounded like she was some sort of a sidekick. Or somebody that was in her charge... what was up with that? She wasn't the Crabbe and Goyle of their friendship. The thought that Mildred might even think of it like that, caused a feeling of anger and betrayal to rise up in her own chest.

"Excuse me?" Daisy placed her fork back on her plate, turning to look at Mildred properly. She was glaring too now, but Mildred didn't back down.

"I _said_, your behavior is making me look bad. And it's obvious to everybody but yourself."

"Well, your stupid comments in class are making the whole of Slytherin look bad, but you don't see me complaining!"

"What did you just say?!" She screeched so loudly that now not only their Housemates were looking on, but some people of the other Houses turned to look at them as well.

"You heard me. If you're going to act like... I'm your pet or possession or something, then you can find somebody else to sit with in class."

"How _dare_ you!" The next thing anybody knew, their wands were pointed at each other. They glared. Daisy had a few ideas of what spells to use- she hadn't tried them out yet, but she had come across them as she skimmed through Theodore's book a few days ago. Now seemed like a perfect opportunity to give the stinging hex, or the leglocker jinx a try, and her wand hand was itching to get some exercise.

"What is going on here?" Professor Snape's voice interrupted her thoughts before an actual fight could break out. The girls lowered their wands, but both still looked angry. It didn't take Snape long to reach them, and he gave each of them a scrutinizing stare before asking, "Is there a problem here? Miss Dursley? Miss Peebles?"

"No, sir." Daisy said at the same time as Mildred murmured, "No, professor."

Snape nodded approvingly.

"Thought so. If this happens again, I will see to it that both of you get detention." With that, he stalked off. Daisy and Mildred glared at each other for a few more moments before the latter grabbed her books and stomped off to the other side of the table, where she seated herself next to Whiddon and refused to look at Daisy for the remainder of the day.

Daisy sighed and sat back down. At least her pancakes weren't cold yet.

"You really made a scene back there..." Startled, Daisy jumped.

"Jesus! Stop sneaking up on me." Theodore smirked, it wasn't hard to tell that he was amused. Daisy gave him a I-am-so-not-amused look, which only made him grin wider.

"Sorry."

"It was about time that somebodyyelled at her..." Sylvia Melville said from across the table. She seemed to already have eaten and was now dipping cookies in her pumpkin juice. "She needed to get taken down a notch."

"Are you sure that it was a good idea though..?" Theodore pointed out, "I mean, the Peebles _are_ purebloods. Not quite what they used to be, but they still have some influence over the ministry."

Sylvia rolled her eyes.

"That's what _they _want you to believe, yeah."

Theodore shrugged, he didn't really seem interested either way.

"Did you hear?" Kevin Blechley said as he sat down at the table, throwing some bacon on his plate. He had an eager sort of look on his face. "The Heir made a move, apparently. Colin Creevey is petrified."

~X~

The first meeting of the dueling club was held at Great Hall, and it started at 8 o'clock in the evening.

All of the tables had been taken away, and in their place there was now a golden stage pressed up against the wall. Daisy and Sylvia got there a bit early, and were thus able to stand right at the front, where they would get the best view of their instructors. There were some familiar faces in the crowd (like Malfoy, for one, and Mildred, for another, but Daisy also saw Ginny Weasley and the rude Hufflepuff from the other day once or twice). To the surprise of some other Houses, most of Slytherin House was present- though that might or might not have been to thank to the rumour that Snape and Lockhart would be their instructors.

Anything that required the two of them working together, was without doubt worth offering up some free time for. It was this thought, and the prospective of learning some exciting new spells, that had brought the two first years there in the first place.

Soon, it was quiet, and Daisy eagerly elbowed Sylvia as their two instructors stepped up on the stage. Gilderoy Lockhart was wearing deep plum robes today, he was as flamboyant as ever. Snape was dressed in black, as usual, and he didn't look that happy to be there.

"Gather round! Gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent!" The one who had said that was, of course, Professor Lockhart. He then proceeded to give some speech , managing to also advertise his books in the process. It was something he did a lot, and Daisy couldn't help but roll her eyes at most of it. Snape just stood behind, remaining silent the whole while even though the look he was giving Lockhart could kill a man.

"Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry- you'll still have your potions master when I'm through with him, never fear!" Daisy and Sylvia exchanged excited looks, and several snickers were heard from all around the room.

"I'd be more worried about myself if I were going up against Snape." One of the Slytherin prefects whispered to his friends, who nodded and grinned in anticipation.

The two of them did a whole show-y kind of thing (even though Lockhart was definitely the most show-y of the two), finally coming to a stop with their wands raised in front of them. The Defense teacher called this an 'accepted combative position'.

Upon the count of three, Snape exclaimed "_Expelliarmus!_", and with a flash of red light, Lockhart was blasted through the air.

Laughter erupted, mostly from the Slytherins in the room, and Daisy had to admit- after all his talk about how they "would still have their potions master when he was done with him", Lockhart had sure gone down easily.

Once she was finished snickering, Daisy turned back to Sylvia. She still had an amused glimmer in her eyes. As soon as he'd managed to get back up, Lockhart babbled some more about how he totally could've stopped that spell if he had wanted to- _yeah right_- and then set them off to work in pairs.

"Aww, no more?" Daisy asked, a bit disappointed. "But this was starting to get entertaining..."

"Come on, let's practice that spell that Snape just cast." Sylvia suggested, a grin gracing her lips.

"Sure."

They spent the next ten minutes or so pointing their wands at each other and crying out

"_Expelliarmus_!" over and over again. Simply casting the spell and then catching each other's wands ended up being boring after a while though, and so the two of them came up with a game. It was called, "cast the disarming spell and duck before the wand reaches you, then watch out for who it hits".

Snape caught up with their game pretty quickly though, and promptly separated them.

Which was how Daisy, still giggling from her and Sylvia's last Expelliarmus stunt, ended up being partnered with a Hufflepuff whose name she didn't know.

Finally, since this whole thing was turning out to be such a disaster, Lockhart decided that they should be taught how to _block_ such spells.

By Snape's suggestion, it was Harry and Malfoy that ended up on the stage. Which didn't really surprise anybody present, to be honest.

Lockhart whispered something into Harry's ear, then proceeded to make a probably exaggerated sort of movement with his wand, but ended up dropping the thing. Daisy snorted. Harry didn't look convinced about following his instructions. Which was probably a wise choice, all things considered.

"Three- two- one- go!"

"_Serpensortia!_"

Out of the tip of Draco Malfoy's wand, a giant snake flew.

Daisy moved a few steps back along with the rest of the students, her eyes wide as she watched the reptile lift its head. It was big, and it didn't look too friendly. It looked ready to strike Harry, in fact.

Snape made a move, raising his wand to get rid of the thing, but then of course Lockhart just_ had_ to interfere.

"Allow me!" He shouted. Whatever it was that he had been intending to do, Daisy was pretty sure that it hadn't been to send the snake flying ten feet into the air- only to fall back down again with a resonating SMACK.

The snake hissed, enraged by its rough treatment, and it started slithering over to one of the Hufflepuffs standing in the crowd. Everybody was watching with bated breath- and in the background, Daisy could make out Snape lifting his wand again.

That was when it happened though- before Snape could act, Harry had opened his mouth (what for, Daisy had no idea), and out of it, a weird sort of hissing sound came. It was freaky, and what was even freakier, was how the snake seemed to just come to a stop when it heard it. It lied back down and turned its head to look at Harry. Docile.

Daisy was curiously reminded of that one time at the zoo- with Dudley and the boa constrictor.

All around the Great Hall, whispers erupted.

"_Did Harry Potter just speak Parseltongue?_"


	8. Letter from home

_It was a commonly accepted truth that Dudley's birthday was generally a day to be dreaded. Even though the day was usually met by a great deal of excitement and anticipation on her brother and parents' behalf, it was usually an unpleasant ordeal for anybody else involved. That of course also included Daisy._

_The first couple of birthdays the girl could remember had been filled with hair-pulling, missing toys and stolen pieces of cake. She couldn't remember most of those too well anymore, only that it had all stopped after she had taken matters into her own hands and seen to it that each of Dudley's friends found out why taking her doll, cutting off all of its hair and giving it to Ripper as a chew toy was a bad idea._

_In other words, she put on a tearful face, and crying like only an upset 5-year-old could, she tattled. She might or might not have changed some of the details to make Dudley and his gang seem more guilty than they actually were. Their mothers weren't too happy with the news of course, and after that incident, Harry replaced her as the butt of the joke while Daisy was generally left alone._

_Hanging around the adults might not always put you in other kids' favour, but it sure did ensure one's safety._

_That didn't mean she really enjoyed the day that was her brother's birthday though. She was still his sister, and she still had to get him presents and act like she was enjoying herself on his birthday parties. Most of all, Dudley's birthday was the one day he could get away with almost literally everything. Not that he was put under a lot of pressure on any other day... but the point still stood._

_Luckily, after her brother's tenth birthday had ended in many tears, broken windows and a lot of needless drama with the neighbours, Petunia Dursley decided that Dudley was now old enough not to throw birthday parties at their house anymore. Instead, for his eleventh, they'd take him somewhere special._

_Daisy was about 70% sure that the actual reason behind this sudden change of plans were the multiple noise complaints number 4 Privet Drive had received from its neighbours last year._

_That year Dudley had decided that he wanted to go to the zoo, so naturally, the zoo it was._

_Out of all the animals, Daisy remembered that she had liked the raccoons in particular. The ones she had seen had just had young, and she hadn't been able to resist pushing her face up against the glass to get a better look. She liked their tails, and the patterns on their faces that made them look like they were wearing masks. On the little plaque on the wall, she had read that they were intelligent and dexterous creatures (her mum had explained that 'dexterous' was a difficult word for 'handy' or 'skillful')- being able to use their front paws to unscrew lids and stuff!_

_If she had been born an animal- a raccoon was what she would've liked to be, Daisy had thought. Dudley of course then had to ruin it by saying he hoped she would get eaten by a lion._

"_Oh look- I found your spirit animal." She flatly told him later, pointing at a hippopotamus that was blowing bubbles into the mud it lay in. Behind her, Harry snorted, trying and failing to hide his laughter._

_Next in line for visiting, was the building labelled as "Serpentarium". Daisy didn't know what the word meant, but as it turned out, the particular building held snakes and other reptiles of all sizes. Daisy didn't really like that part of the zoo that much, it was uncomfortably warm in there, and the snakes were all just laying there lethargically._

"_Make it move!" Dudley whined as they all stood in front of a giant boa constrictor. Daisy tilted her head a bit to get a better look, and her mum moved to let her come to the front. Ignoring the label that said "Do not tap the glass", their dad rapped his hand against the glass. The action got them no reaction from the snake._

"_Do it again!"_

"_Maybe it says 'don't tap the glass' for a reason." Daisy pointed out, but Dudley just determined that the snake was boring and turned away, Piers on his tail just as always. It didn't take her dad long to follow._

"_Come on, pumpkin." Holding onto her mum's hand, Daisy moved on to the next snake as well._

_It was a weird, throaty kind of hiss that caught her attention only moments later. She couldn't really describe it, and as she looked around she only found her cousin standing there. He was still by the boa constrictor, but it wasn't asleep anymore. Harry's mouth was moving, but no words left his throat._

_It took Daisy Dursley a few seconds to realize that the weird sound she was hearing was coming from _Harry_! His lips were moving to the general rhythm but... _how was he doing that_?!_

_She tugged at her mum's sleeve, her eyes wide and fascinated, already halfway through questioning what her cousin was doing when Piers' cry of "DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T _BELIEVE_ WHAT IT'S DOING!" interrupted her._

_What followed was even more unbelievable than what she had just witnessed. One moment, Dudley and Piers were standing in front of the glass, looking at the boa with wide eyes and matching grins on their faces... and the next- the glass was simply _gone_! Vanished. Poof. Into thin air._

_When Piers later claimed to have seen Harry talk to the snake, Daisy couldn't help but think her cousin was a real weirdo._

~X~

"I would've never guessed that _Potter_ would be a parselmouth- I mean, he's not even a pureblood! _Or a Slytherin_!" Some fourth-year whispered to her friends as everybody made their way back to the common rooms that evening. The three girls were all huddled together, whispering rather loudly, and throwing cautious glances all around them as they made their way towards the Slytherin dungeons.

It was rather hard not to listen in on their conversation, especially when Daisy was walking right behind them and they were making no real effort to keep their voices down.

"Did you see that though?! The snake was ready to kill!"

"Yeah, thank Merlin that Snape interfered. What if Potter had turned it on one of us next?"

They collectively shivered at the thought.

Daisy felt like she should've been more surprised by the fact that the Boy Who Lived had just talked to a snake - but in reality, she wasn't really sure what the big deal was. After all, if flying broomsticks and talking portraits were the ordinary at Hogwarts... why not talking to animals?

Harry had done it before, hadn't he? That one time on Dudley's eleventh birthday, Piers had clearly seen him speak to the boa behind the glass. Daisy had seen it too, had witnessed the weird hissy sounds that left his throat. It hadn't sounded human in the least, and now that she thought about it she wasn't even sure how a human throat could produce such sounds... but after attending Hogwarts herself... the Slytherin hadn't thought much of the incident that had taken place back then.

She had brushed it off as something slightly weird, but ultimately unimportant.

Apparently, talking to animals- and especially snakes- wasn't something your average witch or wizard was capable of.

"I bet he's the Heir of Slytherin!"

"Don't be ridiculous, it's _Harry bloody Potter_!"

"Well, how else would you explain a baby being able to defeat... _him_? It suddenly makes sense now, doesn't it?"

"Are you implying that a_ baby_ could've been more skilled in the Dark Arts than the Dark Lord?"

Before the conversation could go on, Daisy had passed them and stormed off into the direction of the Slytherin common room.

~X~

Things didn't really start looking any better as Christmas approached. Quite the opposite happened, in fact: things just became progressively worse.

Just a few days after the now famous 'snake incident' at the dueling club had taken place, Justin Finch-Fletchley (the Hufflepuff the snake had tried to target) was found petrified in some hallway. What was even more unsettling about that, was that right next to him the Gryffindor ghost known as Nearly Headless Nick had been found as well.

Apparently, he had been immobile, and _black _instead of transparent. As good as dead, Daisy figured, even though he probably couldn't die a second time anyway. The news spread like wildfire, and soon, the whole school knew.

It somehow got out that the boy had been a muggleborn as well, and though there were many thoughts and theories on the matter, only one was widely shared by everyone: whatever it was that had attacked both of them that day, had left behind a warning for all the other mudbloods.

The Heir of Slytherin was there. He was _real._

Peeves bursting through the hallways, screaming at the top of his lungs that nobody, alive or otherwise, was safe from the monster, hadn't really helped calm the rumours either.

So to be absolutely honest, no, the situation wasn't looking good at all.

However, holidays were holidays, and Christmas time never failed to bring holiday cheer with it.

The Great Hall was decorated festively, a big Christmas tree having been set up right in the middle, for everyone to see and admire. Everybody was also welcome to join and help decorate it with colorful Christmas ornaments Filch had dug up from somewhere in the castle... most of the time, Daisy was satisfied with just watching Professor Flitwick and a handful of Ravenclaws do the job.

Still, Sylvia had positively beamed when the short man praised her levitation charm that one day. The Slytherin's bright green star hung high up in the tree- and Daisy always liked looking at it. It was rather eye-catching.

The talk about the Chamber was pushed to the background, and jollier thoughts occupied the students' minds.

On the 24th of December, Daisy accompanied her friends to the Hogwarts express, where they exchanged their last goodbyes of the year.

"I'll send you an owl." Sylvia assured her as they quickly hugged. "And maybe even some of dad's homemade cupcakes, if you'd like that. He's the best cook."

"Oh, uh, yeah... that sounds nice."

"It's a deal, then." She grinned. "Happy Holidays."

"Yeah, Merry Christmas."

And with that, the auburn-haired Slytherin was off. Daisy waited for a minute, until she was out of sight, and then turned around to look for Theodore, making sure not to look at Peebles as she walked past her.

Their fight may have occured a few weeks ago, but their dislike for each other still burnt fiercely in their hearts (and wow, that thought was just needlessly dramatic, wasn't it?). They even had to switch beds, so that Daisy was now lying between Sylvia and the twins while Mildred slept at the very end of the room.

Daisy had also taken to sitting next to Sylvia for most of her classes- except for potions, where their seats were assigned and they really had no other choice.

Whenever they were together with no way out, they usually passed the time glaring at or ignoring each other, working in silence. The only words they exchanged were requests like "give me the mortar" or "add the lacewing flies".

Daisy was happy that the girl wasn't staying at Hogwarts and was going home instead. A break from her was very, _very_ welcome.

She spotted Theodore Nott standing near to the end of the platform with some of his classmates. She shuffled closer, realizing that they were discussing something. She wasn't entirely sure if she should interrupt them or not. Before Daisy could even make a decision, a blonde girl noticed her and pointed her out to Theodore.

"Not going home?" He asked as he turned to look at her. The fact that she was still in school uniform and had no trunk with her was probably what gave her away.

"No. I'm going to spend the holidays here." He nodded.

"Right. Merry Christmas then, I guess."

"Yeah, you too. Have fun." That only elicited a snort from Theodore, who replied with a mirthless sort of laugh... which really wasn't much of an encouragement or reassurance.

"I doubt that. But thanks anyway."

Theodore boarded the train some five minutes later, and Daisy stood there for a while longer, waving her friends off (which just meant Theodore and Sylvia, really), before following the rest back to the castle.

It was during lunch that day, while she was sitting with the few other Slytherins that were spending the holidays at Hogwarts, that an owl swept down in front of her. The bird hooted, and nipped her finger.

"_Ow!_" She pulled her finger away, cradling it to her chest. "What's up with you?"

It was only upon closer inspection, that Daisy realized that the owl did in fact look kind of familiar. It was white, and stood proud, and the only person who she knew owned a white owl was...

Daisy looked back over her shoulder at the Gryffindor table, she caught Harry's friends and him quickly looking away as they pretended they had never been watching her in the first place. They did a pretty terrible job at it.

"Alright, what is it that you want?" She turned back to the owl, and it held it's leg out. A note.

She got it off the owl's (what was her name again?) leg, giving it some bread (Sylvia had informed her that owls liked treats), and unfolded the thing as the bird flew off. The note was simple enough.

_I need you to get Malfoy down in the dungeons tomorrow afternoon. At about 7._

_Tell him Crabbe and Goyle are looking for him._

_Harry_

Daisy raised her eyebrow as she shoved the piece of parchment in her pocket, glancing back at Harry, even though he was still clearly set on his task not to look at her.

It wasn't too difficult, she supposed... but she did wonder _why _exactly they needed her to do that. Could she potentially get in trouble for whatever it was they were planning?

She shrugged it off, she was probably going to find out.

They better not get her into trouble though.

~X~

Christmas morning started out uneventfully.

Without any roommates to make noise or run the shower early in the morning, Daisy was able to sleep out, and thus only awoken by Leroy pawing at her face at 10 something in the morning. She pushed him aside, but was playful as ever today- which was how she ended up with a scratch running across her forehead not even two minutes later.

Wonderful.

"Merry Christmas to you too, Leroy." She murmured as she sat up, running a hand through her cat's fur.

She took a shower, not bothering to keep it quick since nobody would be needing it after her anyway. Then she leisurely got dressed. She quite liked this newfound freedom. Whoever came in and made the bed while she was showering, had also seen to it that Leroy was fed, so that left Daisy with nothing better to do than head up to the common room.

She was met with Malfoy there, who was sitting on the armchair by the fire, eating some sort of cookies and loudly talking about the presents his parents had sent him to Tweedle dee and Tweedle dum (read: Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle).

Daisy made sure to swiftly make an exit. She didn't really want to think about her family today. It was a sore subject.

She wondered how Sylvia and Theodore were doing, had they opened their presents yet? Were they still sleeping? Probably not, to the second one, since both were early risers- especially Theodore, who was always up until late and then awake at the crack of dawn.

Thinking of her friends, in turn, made her think of her brother, and how _he_ was probably sitting in the living room right now, with their parents on either side of him, going through the familiar routine of opening his presents.

She could imagine the small mountain of presents, carefully situated so that they were still within his reach, but not blocking Dudley's view of the TV. He would probably complain after he was done opening his presents anyway, and then mum would promise him an extra few presents to make it up to him.

Had Daisy been there, she would've rolled her eyes, agreeing to go with them only if they stopped by the fair on the way back so that she could play some games and ice skate. Not that she could really ice skate all that well, but it wasn't an activity she hated.

Her mother would stay with her, getting all emotional and taking pictures at the worst possible moments as Dudley and their dad waddled off in the direction of whatever food stand was the closest.

By the time they got home, they would be cold but happy.

Only that this year she wasn't at home. She was at Hogwarts, and not even Peeves making Lockhart trip over his own feet, made her laugh. She liked Hogwarts, but she couldn't battle the feeling of homesickness that bubbled up inside her.

It wasn't fair. She hadn't _asked _for this. Yes, she had wanted to go to Harry's magic school, given the chance, but she had not wanted to lose her family like this.

It almost made her wonder if it was worth it. If she should've said no to Snape that day. Almost, but not quite.

It was, however, as midday turned into afternoon, and the Christmas tea hour came upon them, that something unexpected happened.

She was drinking her tea, listening to some fifth year Slytherins talking about their owl exams or something (Daisy had had no idea that owls needed to pass exams here, the idea sounded completely absurd), that a tawny owl flew into the Great Hall. The poor thing seemed to be struggling to stay in the air, and in retrospect, it wasn't exactly what you'd call a wonder when you looked at what it was carrying.

There, from the owl's foot, a big, very heavy-looking bag hung. Daisy had raised her eyebrow, wondering who would even do that to the owl, when she suddenly realized that- _oh_, it was coming her way. And indeed, mere seconds later, the owl crashed in front of her, knocking over her empty teacup.

There was a silence throughout the Great Hall, all eyes planted on her and the owl that lay on the table in front of her, motionless.

"Is it dead...?" The Slytherin prefect who sat next to her asked, and Daisy shrugged. She carefully reached out to poke the bird.

"No... just... tired, I think."

"Well, it's no wonder." The other fifth-year spoke up. "Look at how much it had been carrying...! Aren't there laws against that?"

"I doubt it. There should be though." The prefect gave Daisy and the owl a disapproving look, but didn't say much more.

Everybody returned to what they had been doing before the owl's dramatic entrance into the great hall, and Daisy stayed with the owl for a bit, at least until it got up to its legs again and managed to coordinate itself enough to fly off. Not even a second later, Daisy grabbed the bag and fled the Great Hall.

When she returned to the Slytherin Common room this time, it was empty. She didn't sit down there though, she hurried over to the dorms that she now had all to herself, and, heart hammering in her chest, placed the bag down on her bed.

She lost no time opening it to look at its contents.

They were presents, about eight or nine of them, wrapped up in that same paper her parents used every Christmas. Had she not been so happy, she would've been peeved about the fact that she got presents now, and not on her birthday.

As it was, it was a miracle that she got anything at all. Grabbing the bag, she held it upside down and shook it, causing all of its contents to fall on the bed. Among all the presents, there was a letter and a card.

She went for those first.

The card was a simple Christmas card that her mum sent to all of her acquaintances every year, it had the usual "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year" wishes on it and mum had gotten both her dad and Dudley to sign it.

The letter she handled somewhat more carefully. Even though it had been signed by "Your mum, dad and brother", Daisy knew that her mum was the one who had written it. She could recognize her handwriting.

_Dear Daisy,_

_First of all, I am so so sorry I didn't write earlier. I hope you will find it in yourself to forgive me._

_It's good to know what you're doing well. Don't forget to dress warmly now that the cold days have started. Remember to eat healthily. You'll find your alarm clock in the bag with the presents._

_Concerning the presents, I only sent a few of them because it didn't look like the owl could carry them all. There are more presents waiting for you when you get back home._

_I also wanted to wish you a late happy twelfth birthday. From your brother and father as well, of course. You have always been really perceptive for your age, so I will spare you any false excuses. Things have been a bit tense around here, and I only got around to replying to your letters now. I feel really terrible, and apologize for not sending you anything. Let's go shopping when you get back, just the two of us, and I'll get you anything. How does that sound, honey? I'll try to write back as much as I can._

_On that note, could you possibly instruct the owls _not _to fly in through the open window and perch themselves on random pieces of furniture? They leave feathers behind, and you know how your father dislikes owls. Could they possibly leave the letters outside, or something?_

_We all really miss you, and love you no matter what you are or do. I want you to know that._

_Things have been quiet here. Dudley's gone back to Smeltings. His friend, Piers, has been over a lot as well. Your dad is doing well at work, he's currently in Manchester to sign some contracts._

_Amaryllis also came by asking for you a couple of times, you should write to her sometime. I know that you're probably having a great time there and making friends, but please don't forget about your friends back home._

_But enough about us. How are you? Are those creatures in the kitchen feeding you well? They better be, or I'll have to find a way to send you food every day. How are you doing in your classes? I'd love to hear a bit about your friends._

_Lots of love,_

_Your mum, dad and brother_

When Daisy put down the letter, she had drawn several conclusions.

Whenever her letter said something along the lines of 'your father and brother as well, of course', she really only meant herself but didn't want to make Daisy feel bad. She assumed her parents had gotten into a fight concerning her sometime after she left (possibly after some incident involving the owl she sent happened), and now her dad wanted to take the Harry route with her. Ignore the problem, pretend it wasn't there. The fact that her dad was 'coincidentally' in Manchester when her mum wrote and sent the letter, only served to prove her theory.

It hurt, knowing that her dad would turn his back on her just because of something she had not had the control over in the first place. But she also felt relief that her mum seemed to be on her side. She was, after all, first and foremost a twelve-year old girl. And like anybody else her age, she craved acceptance and attention when it came to her family. It felt good, knowing that she wasn't hated by them... or at least, not by all of them. She didn't know how Dudley felt about her- likely either indifferent (as he had been before the revelation that she was a witch), or scared. The second one was rather more likely.

She also felt a bit angry at herself, and ashamed, that she had completely forgotten about Amy. Amy, her full name was Amaryllis, and her had been friends since the first day of primary school so many years ago. They had bonded over their 'flower names' and been practically joined at the hip since.

She made a mental note to write a letter to both of them as soon as possible.

Folding the letter again, she placed it aside, next to the Christmas card.

Looking through her presents, Daisy indeed did find her alarm clock. She checked it, made sure it was still working properly and placed it on the little table next to her bed. She'd have to ask her mum to send a bunch of batteries next time- just to be safe.

Next, the Slytherin reached for the nearest present. It was small and squishy, and when opened, it revealed a pretty purple scarf. Her mum had apparently been serious about the whole "keep warm" thing.

The rest of her presents included a book from Amy (she had been waiting for it to come out for a while now), a music player of some kind (which was pretty much useless there, how was she going to put any music on it if there were no computers at Hogawrts?), an expensive-looking watch, and some jewelery.

It was nearing 6:45 when Daisy suddenly realized, as she was in the middle of reading the first paragraph of one of the books, that she was supposed to be getting Malfoy to the dungeons soon. She took Harry's note out to check, and yep, she had to be out there at 7.

She threw the note in the rubbish bin before getting out of bed and quickly heading for the common room to try and find Malfoy- she had, after all, no idea where exactly he could be. To her luck, he walked out of the door leading to the boys' dorms only moments after she had entered the common room. What's more, he also seemed to only take a look around the empty common room before walking over to the only person in there beside himself, Daisy

"Hey, you!" Daisy frowned at the way she was addressed to, but didn't say anything, "Have you seen two boys around? Kind of fat, about this tall, kind of dim-witted too?"

"... if you mean Crabbe and Goyle, they said to meet them in the dungeons?" Malfoy seemed to consider this, then shrugged.

"Alright, thanks."

"It's nothing..."

Well... she supposed that that was one job done. Which meant she could get to writing her letters now.

One trek to her dorms and back later, Daisy was sitting in the armchair by the fire, the same one where she always sat when she played chess with Theodore, several pieces of parchment laid down before her as she considered who she should write to first.

Her mum got the prize.

She had only managed to get as far as to thank her for the presents, when the passage that connected the common room with the dungeons opened and three second-years passed through. It was Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle.

Goyle stared at her for a moment too long, and Daisy raised an eyebrow, at which he quickly looked away. They sat down on the leather couches, looking strangely tense. Daisy recognized it as none of her business and looked back down at her letter.

"Wait here," She could hear Malfoy saying- and it wasn't like she was trying to eavesdrop, there was just so little noise right now, that she could hear them anyway. "I'll go get it- my father's just sent it to me."

He walked out of the common room and came back some time later, whatever it was that he showed to his friends, their laughter sounded really forced to Daisy. In her letter, she quickly described Sylvia and Theodore, but left out the whole Chamber of Secrets thing going on. There was no need to worry her mum over something she could do nothing about- the only thing that could result in, was her getting pulled out of Hogwarts... and that was _not _a thing she wanted.

Malfoy's conversation with Crabbe and Goyle was... awkward to even listen to. Surely, they couldn't be _that _dim-witted. Crabbe complained about a stomach ache, and it was at Malfoy's comment about mudbloods, that Daisy decided to turn her attention back to the letter.

"Saint Potter, the Mudbloods' friend. He's another one with no proper wizard feeling, or he wouldn't go around with that jumped-up Granger Mudblood. And people think _he'_s Slytherin's heir."

That was a rumour that had been going around, yeah. Pretty ridiculous, if you asked Daisy. To just start with one reason, he was 12, and as far as she knew had no serious mental disorders. Normal 12-year-olds didn't go around killing other 12-year-olds.

"I wish I knew who it was, I could help them!"

And then there was Malfoy. Crabbe spoke up next.

"You must have some idea who's behind it all..."

"You know I haven't, Goyle, how many times do I have to tell you?"

They went on talking for a while, and Daisy focused on her letters, putting the one for her mum aside, and starting to write one for Sylvia and another one for Theodore. She wished them both a Merry Christmas and asked them about how their holidays were going to far. She didn't have much to tell them about herself and her day, but she did mention to Theodore about her mum writing her.

Crabbe's stomach ache seemed to only get worse as the conversation progressed, and in the end it got so bad that he had to run out of the common room, Goyle followed him. And had that been a flash of orange Daisy had seen...? Daisy looked at Malfoy, and he was looking at her.

"Must have been one heck of a stomach ache." She finally commented before turning back to the writing material in front of her. She had one last letter to write.

When Crabbe and Goyle stumbled back into the common room some time later, they looked like they had slept for ten hours and still craved more... they also didn't seem to remember anything about a stomach ache.

It was... strange.

~X~

_Dear Amy,_

_I'll start off by saying that this is Daisy. I also want to apologize for the unusual means though which you might or might not have received this letter._

_I'm so sorry for not contacting you earlier, my mum told me you've been trying to find me. I've been very busy so it slipped my mind to inform you- I'm very very sorry about that. I changed schools. I'm going to a boarding school in Scotland and though I can't tell you too much about it, it's got a strict no electronics policy. We can send letters to each other instead._

_How that works is, I've paid the owl to stay around until you give her a reply. Just write a letter, fold it up, and give it to the owl. Be sure to write my full name on it, and underneath that, write "Hogwarts". She will know how to do the rest. If you plan on taking a while to answer, give her some bread and water or something. It's a long journey and she might be tired._

_I know how crazy it sounds, but trust me, I'll get your letter._

_Anyways, enough about that. How are you? Merry Christmas by the way, I've enclosed a little present for you. It's not much, but I think you'll like it. Also, thank you for the book! I've already started reading it._

_Please don't stay angry at me for too long._

_Daisy_

~X~

The Christmas holidays progressed, and after the strange thing with Crabbe and Goyle, nothing really extraordinary happened.

She exchanged letters with Sylvia and Theodore quite frequently, but her mother had only managed to to write back once and Amy hadn't at all. She didn't really worry about it- Amy would come around, and Sylvia telling her about her little brother's antics back at home kept her entertained enough.

Where Sylvia's letters were filled with holiday cheer and funny stories about her family, Theodore preferred to steer clear from the family territory. He preferred to talk about what books he read, and how it sucked that their last house elf died some years ago and that they had no money to get a new one.

Daisy didn't know what exactly a house elf was, but the way Theodore described it to her when she asked, it sounded like a servant of some kind. He also promised to bring a book about pureblood genealogy with him when he got back, because if she wanted to get anywhere in Slytherin without her cover being blown at some point, she had to at least know the basics.

Sylvia, as promised, also sent her some of her dad's homemade cupcakes. They were, just as the girl had promised, very good. She made sure to mention that in one of her letters, as well as thank Sylvia's dad.

Other than that, nothing really remarkable happened- Granger apparently got herself in the hospital wing- but she wasn't petrified, only really hairy (what that meant, Daisy had no idea), so she didn't really care much.


	9. Blood status

Amy's reply came in halfway through January.

She had been sitting at the Slytherin table with Sylvia and some others, discussing the outrageous amount of homework they'd been given during the past few days, when owl post arrived.

Sylvia's family owl, Fluffers (she said that it was the first and last time her parents ever let her little brother name anything), swooped down in front of them, hooting proudly as he held out his leg.

"Cupcakes...! Oh, sweet!" She opened the bag and took one, then offered one to Daisy, who gladly took it.

"Does your dad cook a lot...?" Daisy asked, tilting her head a bit. It was a pretty weird thought, her own father sure had never bothered with anything like that. He called cooking a woman's job, and said that only sissy men spent time in the kitchen. Daisy thought Sylvia's dad sounded rather cool though.

"Well, he mostly just makes desserts- but yeah, if anybody cooks at all, it's my dad that does it. My mum doesn't usually have the time to do it the muggle way, so she does this wand wavy thing, she's got some sort of spell for it- since it takes less time and all."

Daisy nodded, considering Sylvia's words.

"Sounds cool."

"Not really... see, food tastes kind of differently when prepared magically."

"It does...?"

"Yeah, the food here is prepared naturally, I can tell. Do your parents cook the muggle way at home?"

"Oh, uh, yeah. My mum prefers that... health and all that." Sylvia looked like she was about to ask something else, but that was when a large brown owl landed in front of Daisy, interrupting their conversation. Daisy was kind of happy about that... she didn't really want to dive into the matter of her family. It would be too easy to slip up.

She had been expecting a letter from her mum, but the light pink envelope gave the sender away before she even opened the letter. Her best friend had always had an affinity for that colour.

"Ooh, light pink." Sylvia snickered, "Who would that be?"

"A friend of mine. And no, not like that." She rolled her eyes as she took the envelope from the owl.

On the back, _Daisy Petunia Dursley _was written.

Well... she _had _said to write her full name on the thing... oh well.

_Dear Daisy,_

_You know what, I've been staring at this piece of paper for ten minutes and still the only thing I can think of to say is: (and I'm sorry for the language) what the hell, Daisy?_

_I'm not really angry, I think I'm too shocked right now. The main reason I'm replying now is because I was on a vacation with my dad, so you can imagine our surprise when we got back and there was an owl waiting for us in the house._

_The tenant let it in, then complained for about twenty minutes. He wants to put a no pet policy in his apartments now. I don't think he'll be able to do that though, the lady on the ground floor has a parrot and she loves that thing like she'd love her own child._

_I'm not really confident about how or if this will even reach you, but thanks for the set of pens you sent me! I don't get how they work but it's really awesome how the colour changes- I've used them for a few of my drawings already._

_You better like that book! I stood in line for three hours to get it... that trilogy of yours sure is popular. It's going to be a trilogy, right? It's not going to be a quadralogy or whatever, is it?_

_Also, a boarding school in Scotland?! That's big news, how could you just neglect to tell me? Well, whatever you're doing there, I hope you're having fun- though no electronics? That sounds terrible! Are you training to become a nun or something?_

_Try not to take a few months to write to me this time around._

_Amy_

Sylvia nudged her, turning Daisy's attention away from Amy's letter.

"Not that you getting mail isn't nice and all that, but lunch is nearly over and we really should get to History of Magic."

"Oh... right." She quickly folded the letter and shoved it back into its envelope before storing it between the pages of her book, where she knew she would find it later.

Grabbing their stuff, the two of them left the Great Hall.

~X~

History of Magic was as uneventful as ever. As much as she had liked history back at home, Daisy just couldn't find it within herself to concentrate on Professor Binn's words as he spoke in that same boring tone of voice for what seemed like hours. His voice never raised or fell an octave, it just eternally stayed the same.

"Do you ever wonder if he knows that he's dead?" She had whispered to Sylvia once, who simply shrugged.

"I don't particularly care. I just want this class to be over." She had replied, resting her head in her forearms and letting out a long, very bored, sigh. Professor Binn's paid it no attention, just like he never paid attention to anything that wasn't his lesson.

Daisy had stopped attempting to pay attention at about the fourth lesson- it wasn't worth it, and she could learn it herself anyway. Reading the passage herself was much more thrilling than having it be told to them by a ghost that might or might not be aware of the fact that he had died years ago.

Instead, she focused on writing her reply to Amy.

_Dear Amy,_

_I'm sorry about the mess the owl caused, I hope your dad didn't get into too much trouble because of her._

_I've already read the book, I'm actually reading it a second time right now. It was really good. Seriously, Amy, go into a bookstore and get yourself a copy. You won't regret it._

_How has school been over there? The professors here have been giving us a lot of homework lately- probably in preparation for the exams or something. Chemistry has been getting increasingly difficult as well... I'm not very good at it, to be honest. Our professor for it is kind of intimidating, but I've been lucky not to get on his bad side._

_It also snowed last week! Everything is white and really pretty, it makes the school look like a fairy tale castle. Because that's what the building is, of course, a castle. It's really spectacular- I wish you could see it._

_Do I look like somebody who would have any desire to become a nun? Don't worry though, there may be no electronics here but I've got plenty of things to keep me busy. I'm kind of still learning the ropes, but I've got a friend to help me out with that._

_I thought you might like those pens! I put a lot of effort and time into making those. There were some mishaps involving me painting my fingers in different colours, but I managed in the end. As for the how, a master at his craft never tells his secrets or something like that, right? *insert some sort of a winking face here*_

_So yeah, I guess that's it for right now. Tell your dad I said hi._

_Daisy_

~X~

After Charms, Daisy set off to go to the owlery to send her letter as soon as possible. She did take care to inform Sylvia of her whereabouts, and told her that she'd meet her at the Slytherin table for dinner later.

Sylvia had simply nodded, offering up a "see you later" before turning around and following the rest of their classmates to the common room, where they'd get to hang out for about an hour or so before dinner got served.

Daisy turned around and walked off into the opposite direction.

The trek to the owlery wasn't a particularly long one, but the fact that the path was covered with snow, did make it somewhat harder to navigate than usual. It took her twice as long, and by the time she reached the top of the hill, her boots were wet and the snow had soaked through to her socks. She tried to move her toes, but even that hurt. It was less than pleasant.

Happy to have her feet out of the snow at least, Daisy took a moment to perform a heating charm on them, like Flitwick had showed them during the last lesson. It worked well enough to dry her shoes and socks a bit, but didn't do much more than that. She was still cold and trembling and wished that she had at least been smart enough to take a pair of gloves with her. Were her fingers starting to turn a weirdly purplish colour...?

Shaking the thought out of her head, Daisy pulled walked over to the more crowded part of the owlery (how weren't there animals frozen yet?), trying to find an owl that looked tame and smart enough to be trusted with this. Maybe a small one, that wouldn't attract too much attention.

Settling on a small black one, the Slytherin walked over to it, she held out the letter and it seemed excited enough to be given a job, even in this cold weather.

"Right. Take this to Amaryllis Stewart. The address is on there." The owl hooted, shaking its feathers before taking off. How all these owls knew how to find the people they were looking for, Daisy had absolutely no idea.

She decided to get back to the castle, it would at the very least be warmer inside, but as she turned around to walk through the exit, she found her path blocked by none other than Mildred Peebles.

Daisy struggled to keep her expression neutral, not wanting it to look like she was affected by the girl's arrival. Her hand was already hovering close to where she kept her wand.

"What are you doing here?"

Instead of a proper answer, Daisy was met with a shrug.

"I followed you." She easily admitted. She'd been hoping the other girl might've been there to send a letter. No such luck of course. "I wanted to talk to you."

"Is this about me making you look bad again? Because it's cold out here and I'd rather go inside than waste my time here."

"See?! You're doing it again!" The Slytherin stomped her foot on the ground in frustration. Before Daisy had the time to react to it, Mildred had drawn her wand, and next thing she knew, her back hit the wall.

When she tried to move, she couldn't. It was as if some invisible force was holding her back- or as if her robes were glued to the wall...

"What-"

"That's payback for the things you said." She kicked her foot, and Daisy would've retaliated, had she not been stuck to a wall. As it was she could only glare at Peebles with all the intensity of a thousand burning suns. Alright. Now she was just being dramatic. She still glared though. "I _really _don't like you."

"Oh believe me," Daisy spat, "the feeling's mutual."

She looked about to say something more, but decided against it, and with that, Mildred Peebles was gone.

"Hey, wait! You're not going to leave me here, are you?!"

Apparently she was, because the only answer she got was a "Have fun catching owl droppings, Dursley!". Daisy sighed, attempting to sit down, only to realize whatever Peebles had done, it was keeping her from moving. Yeah. Wonderful.

It was cold, and though she wasn't catching owl droppings as Mildred had hoped, Daisy wasn't so sure if the same could be said about a cold. She had tried to reach for her wand several times, but her hands weren't close enough. She had also attempted to sort of wiggle out of her robes, but that turned out to be futile.

Daisy wasn't sure for how long she'd been standing there, really wishing she could at least take a seat, when the distant sound of voices reached her ears. She thanked whatever god was out there for her luck. The owlery could've easily gone days without anybody checking on it.

As the voices got closer, Daisy became able to distinguish words and, finally, sentences.

"It's so unfair! Goyle's potion was definitely a lot worse than mine...!"

"Well, it's Snape. What had you expected?"

"Yeah, I guess. But still... I wish McGonagall favoured us like that!"

It was with a jolt that she realized she knew exactly who those voices belonged to. She didn't have time to prepare herself before they emerged from behind the corner, conversation coming to an abrupt end as their eyes fell on the Slytherin glued to the wall.

"...Hi."

"Daisy?" Harry asked at the same time as Weasley exclaimed "Bloody hell!"

"What are you doing here?"

"Enjoying the wonderful smell." Daisy deadpanned, then realized they were her only actual chance of escaping. "I mean, I got into a spot of bother with a classmate of mine. I don't know how to undo this."

Weasley started laughing, and Daisy glared at him. A few moments passed.

"I'll- uh- why don't you go send your letter, I'll deal with this?" Weasley shrugged at Harry's suggestion, and Daisy got the impression that he wouldn't have minded just leaving her there either. He disappeared into the back of the owlery, leaving Harry and her alone. "It looks like a sticking charm, I think." He said after a few moments of making semi-circles around her.

"Well, can you do anything about it...?"

"I can try." Daisy nodded, watching closely as Harry took out his wand. "Stay still, alright?"

It wasn't like she could do much else anyway. Pointing his wand at the back of her robe, he muttered "diffindo", there was a tearing noise, and he winced, then repeated it a few times.

Finally, Daisy was able to move away from that stupid wall. She mumbled a 'thanks' and stretched her arms.

"Well... the bright side is that you're not stuck to a wall anymore."

"And the not-so bright side?"

"You might need a new robe." The Slytherin sighed heavily.

It was only later, when Weasley had returned and they were walking back to the castle in a tense silence (it was clear that Weasley and Daisy didn't like each other much, and Harry was probably just uncomfortable with the situation as a whole), that Daisy spoke up again.

"For what it's worth," She said, "I don't think you're Slytherin's heir, Harry."

~X~

"You've probably noticed, but... there's a sort of _social status_ going on in our House." Theodore explained as they sat in the library one day towards the end of January. A book titled as '_Pureblood genealogy of the 20__th__ and 21__st__ century_' lay open in front of Daisy. She had skimmed through it for a bit, but it was a lot to take in. Looking up from Theodore's book, Daisy nodded.

"It has something to do with your heritage, no?"

"Yes. It's got everything to do with that. Now I'm not telling you that you should live your life by this, or that everyone thinks their blood is an important matter... but there are plenty people in Slytherin that do. Which is why it's wise to know about these things."

Daisy already knew that, it was exactly the reason why she had asked Theodore to help her in the first place. She might've struggled through a couple of months, but staying ignorant was not going to help her in any shape or form. She wasn't going to be lucky for seven years- one day, her luck would dry up- and then she would have to rely on her own wits to save herself.

"You can view it as a sort of pyramid if you want to," He reached for the piece of parchment on the desk, and since she was closer, Daisy passed it to him. She also gave him a quill.

Theodore proceeded to sketch a triangle.

"See, at the very top, you've got the purebloods. Like myself." He drew a line and wrote the word '_pure_' in the little triangle he had created inside the triangle. "Malfoy's another one. Peebles from your year as well."

She had insulted and gotten in a fight with somebody that was at the top of the pyramid?

"Being a pureblood just means that there is no muggle blood in your family. Not all purebloods are as influential or important though. Take the Peebles family for example, they were strong back in the 20s. Had you started that fight back then- you'd have been in trouble. As it is though, they've fallen from grace. Both of her parents have low positions in the Ministry of Magic, nothing to worry about."

"The... _Ministry of Magic_?" Daisy repeated, because as stupid as it was, she had never considered that behind the scenes somebody might be running this whole thing, keeping wizards and witches in check. In retrospect... it seemed rather obvious though.

"Yeah. We'll need to get you a book on that as well. The Ministry's greatest function is making sure the muggle world stays unaware of us, pretty obvious why. They also do other things, but let's not dwell on that right now."

"Right, sorry."

"Hmm, what was I saying?" Theodore considered, scratching his head for a moment before he continued. "Right. Peebles. No real threat. Who you _do _need to look out for are the ones that come from an influential pureblood family."

"I'm going to guess Draco Malfoy's one of them?" A nod answered her question.

"Yes, exactly. In fact, Malfoy is a great example." She had kind of guessed by the way he carried himself and acted around others, as if he was superior to everybody in the room. And then there was always the "my father" threat and conversation starter. "Lucius Malfoy, his father, is one of the School Governors right now so he has a lot to say in what goes on around here. Not that he actually _needs _the money of course, they could probably go on living luxuriously for generations without anybody making even a knut. But he has a lot of connections."

"Don't pick a fight with Malfoy, noted."

"Yeah, seriously, _don't_." Theodore seemed to tire from standing this whole time, so he plopped down in a chair next to her. "See, what the other Houses don't get is- Slytherin is all about subtlety. It's about knowing who not to anger, and who you want on your side when bad times come. I'm not saying that Slytherin does the best job at preparing students for later life but... let's face it, it does. When we get out of here, we've laid out a path for ourselves, connections to weave into and get somewhere in life. The other Houses don't have that, take Gryffindor for example- they're used to speaking their mind and getting their way. That's not going to continue once they're out of school and House colours don't matter anymore."

They held logic, Theodore's words. Daisy considered them, and even though her knowledge of the magical world was limited, when looking at the muggle world... she could see where he was coming from.

"Especially for people who might want to pursue a career at the ministry... politics like the ones found in Slytherin house are going to be a necessary skill. And it's much harder to learn that later. And that, is also where muggleborns come in. They come here knowing very little to nothing of how this world works, and when they get sorted into other Houses, they're told that that is okay. I'm not saying they can't be great wizards or witches, because they can- but they should have a basic understanding of how things are."

"Well, they can learn, can't they? I'm sitting here listening to you." Daisy pointed out, a bit peeved about the muggleborn part.

"Exactly! You are- but can you imagine a Gryffindor doing the same?"

Daisy entertained the notion for all of 10 seconds before she decided that- no, she couldn't imagine that, not really.

"Slytherin might not be a well-liked House, but there's no denying that once out of here, we're the winners. Several of the Ministers have been in Slytherin. Merlin himself was allegedly a Slytherin."

Daisy nodded to show that she was still paying attention.

"Well, that's more an objective point of view. But you've got to keep in mind that a lot of Slytherins are biased. You don't want them knowing you're a muggleborn. Let's get back on topic though. You've got purebloods, and some of these purebloods are what you'd call a bloodtraitor. Now this isn't an official term, more of a slur. It's just a term to refer to pureblood wizards who, according to the purebloods, don't have respect for their blood status. They tend to interact with muggles and muggleborns, more than what is acceptable, that is. Which, technically, is interacting with any muggleborns at all."

Daisy raised an eyebrow.

"So... does that make you-?"

"Not if nobody knows about it. Besides, you're just one person. We're talking about Weasley scale muggle-loving here. Speaking of the Weasleys, they're well-known bloodtraitors."

Most of the people in other houses sounded like the very definition of a bloodtraitor. The only ones that really took this whole thing seriously, were Slytherins. She wondered if there were other muggleborns in Slytherin right now. She'd probably never know though... if there _were_ muggleborns in her House she'd expect they would be hiding it, just like she was doing. Still, it'd be nice to have some advice on how to cope with it.

"Most of the population is made up of half-bloods. It's a pretty simple concept. Anyone who has a muggle or muggleborn in their family but is not one themselves is a half-blood. Of course, if the members of the family keep marrying purebloods and the muggle blood is enough generations away to be considered insignificant it can be brushed under the carpet. The third group is, as I'm sure you already known, the ones that have muggle parents and no apparent magical relatives. They're called muggleborns."

"No apparent magical relatives?" Daisy looked up at Theodore, who nodded. "My aunt and cousin went to Hogwarts- or well, my aunt did, my cousin's still here."

Understanding dawned on the Slytherin's face and as he realized where Daisy was going with this, he quickly shook his head.

"No, no, that's not how it works. It's unusual, but relatives sometimes turn out to be witches or wizards. They're still considered muggleborns." Theodore paused then, regarding Daisy, "I didn't know you had a cousin here..."

"Oh... yeah." Daisy shrugged, "He's a Gryffindor. We don't talk much."

"Who is it?"

"Why don't you find out yourself? That ought to be funny." He rolled his eyes, leaning back against his chair and taking a moment to stretch his arms. "I'll give you a hint. I'm sure you've heard of him at some point."

"Oh wow, that's a lot of help." Daisy grinned.

"Believe me, it is."

They just quickly went over one last group before dinner, the so-called squibs, as Theodore had told her they were called. Being born in a family of wizards without the ability to do magic yourself sounded like a terrible fate to Daisy, but Theodore reassured them that they were quite rare and nothing to really worry about. It wasn't like there was much that could be done about it.

It was just as they were getting out of the library that the boy spoke up.

"Kenny Markham?"

"...What?"

"Your cousin's name."

"_Oh_." Daisy snickered. "no."


End file.
